Valour Guardians 7: That Which Hides In Shadows
by typhoonboom08
Summary: Kim finds herself a target in multiple agendas as her team travel to Japan and not all of them are good. While Bulma is making a play at restoring the Guardians, a certain ghost and assassins make moves to prevent just that. And then there is other. An archer within the assassins' ranks has an agenda of her own, involving Kim and a boy. The question is, what side is she on?
1. The Planning Pariah

**Disclaimer:** Same as usual, I only own the plot. Characters belong to the owners of DBZ, Disney, DC, Digimon, Nickelodeon and Eureka 7 respectively.

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 **The Planning Pariah**

Many great things came from the sacrifice made by the Guardians after the battle with Maleficent and her forces, that could be seen by anyone who remembered the disaster that occurred. A planet that was overrun and consumed by the Heartless, just moments from eternal darkness destined to spread and destroy all that exists was restored to its former radiance and a great many Heartless were eradicated, finally returning their stolen hearts to their true owners. All those involved agreed, it was well worth the sacrifice of memories and established bonds of all those around the world.

However, the removal of those bonds and memories did still lead to chaos, at least for a time. Information, formations and much more was lost along with the connections between the societies, leaving large gaps and confusion in the lives and business of everyone and they didn't know why. These hiccups and were quickly resolved of course, the magical societies, the normal Governments and all other groups returning to the routines and procedures they knew and followed back before the Guardians formed and united them all. Before long, for most it was as if their alliances and shared societies never existed.

However, the time of that chaos made the perfect openings for many undesirable people, both aware of the change and those who'd circum to the altered memories alike. And this included none other than Vlad Plasmius.

The sudden gaps and confusion in world security and observation procedures made it easy for the cunning ghost hybrid to slip back into the revitalised Earth and with his powers, knowledge and his memories still completely intact, having being well beyond the Dimensional Witch's powers from his place out in space at the time of their unleash, he was able to move and scheme throughout the human and magical worlds without any difficulty whatsoever. It wasn't long before he'd managed to get a small fortune and a hidden base of operations back under his control and from there, he watched and planned.

Sitting back in a chair that the word throne would probably more accurately describe, Vlad couldn't hold back a sad and angry sigh as one of his monitors showed him an image of Maddie Fenton alternating between writing down notes for a Ghost Hunting Guide she intended to publish and staring longingly at a picture of her children sitting on her desk, courtesy of one of his many spy cams creeping around the world. She'd never be his now, never love him, that was guaranteed. He'd revealed every last one of his old cards during that meteor fiasco, both to the world and to Jack specifically. Maddie knew everything about him and would never so much as smile at him ever again, with the only possible exception of him being in her crosshairs.

To finally admit that had almost completely crushed him. If he were a full ghost, it would have, his biggest obsession was annihilated. But he was still alive and the living could develop new desires, even core obsessions, and so he pressed on.

"Oh Maddie. Perhaps one day I will finally manage to have you at my side. Even if I have to force you there." He sighed again, letting his adoring stare linger on her for a few more moments before finally changing the screen. "But unfortunately, until then, I have other business to attend to."

That he did. His goal of gaining Maddie's love was gone, but he was determined to make the world pay for it. He would regain the power and control he'd lost and more. He would succeed at gaining Daniel at his side, whether by trickery or force, and he would succeed in taking the world as his own, just as he had before the meteor proved to be untouchable. He would become the most powerful man on the planet, this time with forces of the normal world, the magical world and the ghost realm alike answering his call. Then, he would remove Jack forever and force Maddie to be his Queen.

But first, he had to deal with those that would stand in his way.

"Now let's see. Where should I make my next move?" He mused, a dark smirk crossing his face as he brought up eight profiles on his monitors, each one depicting a very recognisable teenager. Mildly looking each one over, he set to work with the centre three monitors, using them to peruse backed up video logs from his spy cams and information shared by both the mundane and magical internet, looking for anything worth adding to his profiles.

He was through underestimating the youthful heroes. Too many times, his perfect plans had been foiled by children simply because of his own arrogance, underestimating their talents and resourcefulness. He'd had plenty of time to swallow his pride and admit that it since even Jack left him to float around in space. Even if he hadn't, it couldn't be denied. Forever looking for a way safely back in, to take what was rightfully his, he had continued to watch the world from a space station he'd thought to send up before he busted himself, fortunately well stocked with food and water. With the help of that and his spy cameras, he'd easily kept tabs on the world's development and saw full well just what the Valour Guardians had accidentally created and worked to maintain. The kind of world unity that was next to impossible to make, but if done successfully, the kind in which the less than law abiding types like himself only found doing their business that much more difficult. Add that to the fact that the Valour Guardians was already an alliance movement involving dozens of heroes and support teams that were only going to grow with or without members' entire societies backing them up and you had a real problem. What made it even worse for his plans was that with Daniel being one of them, he was even further from Vlad's influential reach than ever. Even an idiot could tell you, this union had to be stopped and the very event that allowed him to return to Earth was exactly what he needed to make sure it never happened again.

Once he'd managed to successfully organise his base of operations, he'd immediately set to work, gathering everything, both new and old, about the Guardians that he could find, carefully determining how to proceed.

Naturally, the ones he'd initially wanted to strike at first were Saiyaman and Lucky Girl. With Ben Ten's Omnitrix destroyed, there was no question that they were the most powerful members of the guardians. Video recordings his spy cameras had managed to acquire from the end of the battle with Maleficent suggested that one of the Nobodies might be a contender as well, considering the enormous amount of light that exploded from that place, but both of them were long gone from this world, completely out of his hair. That only left two major powerhouses to threaten him individually.

"If only I could go after them." Vlad grunted, looking over the data on both of them and finishing their updates before closing both files right down. _'But that would be too foolish.'_ Truer words, he'd never spoken. He'd put up a good fight against them for sure, and might even win, but the risk was far too great. Both of these members had a lot going for them. Power, intellect and resourcefulness, just to name the similarities between them as individuals, and in addition, they both also had a number of people more than capable of assisting them within arm's reach. Every shred of common sense screamed at him that he simply wasn't ready to fight such warriors. So he moved on, not only to the others, but to a new type of threat. The threat of influence.

The American Dragon, Kim Possible and his ultimate prey, Danny Phantom. Famous the world over, each one of them had countless different contacts and could quite easily gather an army each if they ever desired. In reality, the power of unification that each one of them represented individually was incredibly dangerous to him, if they were able to reunite and combined networks again, he'd never stand a chance in this world. Even all the other Guardians and their connections combined paled in comparison to the force those three could set up together. Add that to the fact that each one of them was a threat as an individual, if only a minor one to someone as powerful and experienced as him, then you had the most important targets. And so, he made plans to quickly remove all three.

However, much to his delight, this was practically done and gift wrapped for him. He'd barely started planning out his own moves when the Dark Dragon made the first move of his own with a dark sorceress. It was a brilliant piece, if he did say so himself, one that he doubted could have ended much better if even he tried. True, the American Dragon wasn't dead, but he had not only lost the bulk of his influence, his most powerful allies and all those that would join them had turned on the boy, fully intending to kill him themselves. On top of that, the whole disaster had gotten Danny lost in the dimensions, effectively removing the one person on the entire planet that had any chance of organising and allying the ghost zone with the living world.

Normally he'd be mad at the possibility of Danny being out of his grasp, but he knew that the boy would return sooner or later. He had continued to spy on those who returned from their interdimensional trip and knew full well where the boy had ended up. It was a little concerning just who's company he was currently in, but by the time he'd return home, Vlad was confident that the rest of his plans would play out and leave him free to work on Danny once again.

He was a little concerned that the American Dragon was now under the close protection of Saiyaman, not to mention the other Z Fighters and the high speed duck that came through the portal with them, but he quickly got over that. The Dragon Order was ripping the world apart looking for their 'traitor' while the rest of the magical societies worked desperately to hide it and repair it before the non-magical world could get suspicious. They were sure to find him eventually, and if they didn't, Vlad could always tell them after they caused enough chaos. Either way, once they found him and discovered who was protecting him, not only would that end any chance of the Z Fighters allying with the magical world, it would most likely end up with them fighting and eventually killing the Z Fighters for him. Whatever the result, it would only be beneficial to Vlad.

With the two with the supernatural connections dealt with well enough for the moment, Vlad was completely free to work on his other plans, eliminating Kim Possible.

Surprisingly enough, that too had worked out better than he'd hoped. Originally, he'd considered gathering her frequent villains and offering them all a substantial amount of money to work together and annihilate her, but that idea came crashing down with a week of his ponderings. Not long after he'd made it back to Earth, an alien invasion tried to conquer it and was repelled thanks to the efforts of Team Possible and Dr Drakken and Shego. Normally, he'd continue ahead with the plan anyway, take advantage of their injuries, but not only did Drakken and Shego end up deciding to give up on world domination, at least for now, he wasn't sure how long that would last, but Ron Stoppable had stepped up dramatically, embracing and revealing an enormous amount of mystical energy in the process. In addition, it appeared that team Possible was getting new members and increasing communication with alliances, including the annoying Global Justice and Team Go. It was unlikely that her enemies would be capable of dealing with the new circumstances.

However, just as he was getting frustrated and considering a risk of sending a less subtle contact after her, he fell into the good fortune of the League of Shadows. To this day, it drove him crazy that he didn't know what, but Ra's Al Gul was preparing for something big and had found something even bigger. Namely, a portal to another dimension.

At first, Vlad had thought that it was a pathway to some spellcaster's little pocket dimension, but it quickly became apparent that it was much greater than that. Heavy research and spying on the League of Shadows allowed him to gleefully discover that it was a pathway to one of the different dimensions that his spying and the events of the Heartless and Nobodies had confirmed the existence of. Further research informed him that it had been ripped open at the time that the Heartless had invaded, probably due to them messing with the balance of the world. A few others had been noticed too around the world and even more probably had been fully opened, but all of them had closed within a day of the Heartless' defeat. This one however, though closing when he'd discovered its existence, had not only appeared within a Shadows' stronghold, but someone and something had been confirmed to have been spat out of it. A teenage boy and a giant robot made of metal as hard as diamonds and programming so advanced that it rejected every pilot except the child.

Though they'd made no progress so far in getting the machine to work or the seemingly wimpy kid to talk or obey them, the machine had held a great amount of promise for both Ra's and Vlad and both hoped to use the still open portal to obtain more. The problem with that however, on Ra's end at least, was the portal's stability and the fact that it had quickly been determined that humans travelling through it was...risky to say the least. Vlad however, had found that his knowledge with sustaining Ghost Portals was sufficient to keep this portal useable and both he and the few ghosts that he'd managed to get back in touch with without notice from the Fentons and their allies could bypass through simply. His problem however, was the surplus of well trained assassins armed with stolen and mass produced ectoplasmic weaponry. So, he did what he did best and struck a deal.

Obviously, it wasn't a simple task. Ra's was, though much deadly than the average representative, a warrior against evil. It took quite a bit of a fight, an explanation and proof of the existence of the Valour Guardians and an ultimatum about his desired use for the portal for Vlad to get his alliance.

"Not that that is really the right word for it." He smirked, bringing up a surveillance image of the League of Shadows' compound. "After all, what alliance could possibly exist when both sides intend to take the other out at the first decent moment and both sides know it?" Still, they both had to keep up this charade for now and in this circumstance, their goals were very similar. They needed the Guardians out of the way and they wanted the machines the alternate world could offer, which they could only get by cooperating. Neither had any prayer of success with the second part at the very least without each other and both were too strong and cunning for the other to control, so they were stuck the way they were.

"It'll be worth it though." He mused, picking up a cup of tea and taking a sip as he stared at their current prize, Niervosh. "Hopefully, my little push will get the easier part in all this taken care of. With any luck, Kim Possible will be dead within a day or two. And now that they will be on her trail, let's move on to the others, shall we?" A cruel grin spread from one side of his face to the other as he closed down all of his files until only those of Ben Ten, Wudai Warrior and Justiman were left.

"Now that one would be easy, normally." Vlad muttered, frowning at the files spreading around the base one for Ben Ten. "Still near powerless, but incredibly influential with the Plumbers, just as Lucky Girl." His frown hardened as he turned his attention to a screen depicting the surveillance of the boy to find him sitting at his town's Mr Smoothie with his cousin and friend, Kevin Eleven. Judging from the spell book sitting in front of Ben, they were taking a break during one of Ben's new magic lessons, not that he seemed very good with his pitifully small amount of magic. He couldn't help but let his frown turn into a scowl as he watched them. Every single Tennyson had some influence over the Plumbers and every other alien on the planet. He would love to wipe them out, but he couldn't risk it. He had no way of influencing people powerful enough to take them on, most who could were as powerful as Vlad himself and plenty intelligent. He could only hope that someone with a grudge would come along now that Ben Ten was no more than a weakling mage.

"Still, it could be worse. The Plumbers left this entire sector of the galaxy in the hands of Ben Ten and those he gathered. They're strong, but hardly a leading influence in this world." Feeling a bit better as the thought crossed his mind, he scrubbed Ben's details from view and focused on the others.

Seeing that The Xiaolin monks had had their hands full with only increasing numbers of Heylin warriors, Vlad pushed Raimundo aside for now. He was confident that Wuya, Hannibal Roy Bean and Chase Young would take care of him. After all, each of them was a legendary force of evil, all of them doing unspeakable horrors individually. With all three causing strife at once, he doubted the Xiaolin Dragons would last for long. That just left Justiman, the tenth Guardian.

"Such a powerful warrior. Defeated even the Saiyan brat once." Vlad had to admit, Justiman was fascinating. And a very big curiosity. It had been difficult to find a lot of information on his origins and power sources, but he had was definitely intriguing for the scientific mind. It was right there on the screen in front of him, information stolen by hacking some of the most secure and isolated systems on the planet. A man-made metahuman, just like the ghost hybrids.

"If only I could find the identity of what they used to alter him and how." Setting his cup aside, he set to work, typing furiously, analysing every bit of data and footage before him, looking for the slightest hint of what was done. His abilities didn't help much. Most of his different attacks were due to the metal arm simply using and reshaping the purplish-blue energy his body exuded, an invention he'd discovered was created by his teammate Tech, another person Vlad had taken interest in. The abilities he had without it were far too generic, simply being super strength, durability and stamina, combined with exceptional fighting talent. Combine that with the fact that so much data on the actual process was missing and a major component commented on frequently in the notes was only called 'the element', there was almost nothing to go on.

"Damn it! If I could figure out what was used, I could easily duplicate the process." His eyes narrowed into slits, he fiercely examined every single word in every report and entry note he'd acquired, over even the slightest of details in the videos of Justiman's battles. He had to find the source of this power, had to find an answer. If he could then he'd have the potential for creating an army that could wipe out even the League of Shadows in a day! A force powerful enough to help him take over the world, but not powerful enough for any member to be a threat to him. "There has to be something, some sign of...aha!" Eyes widening and a victorious smirk splitting his face, he immediately froze a recording, one he'd barely could through the side of his eye. Bringing up a report he'd read only a few minutes ago, he reread a paragraph, frequently looking back and forth between it and the frozen image, before bring up an internet search, confirming his theory. A moment later, the entire room was filled with a loud, evil cackle. "That's it! Amazing, how did they ever manage to get their hands on that? Oh, this is perfect."

It only took moments for a plan to form in his mind after that. It was fool proof, there was no doubt about that. And the best part was that he'd barely even need to lift a finger. One little prick and the heroes and their little friends would do the job for him.

"Whether he succeeds or fails, another Guardian and who knows how many others will be out of my way. HAHAHA!" The laughter actually turned psychotic at that. He had his next target. Another domino was about to fall and this one would take a number of them with him.

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 **AN:** Well what do you know, I'm back. Sorry about the long wait on this guys and girls. It's come up later than I intended and I haven't got the loading of chapters I'd hoped to have before I started posting, but I figured old fans had been waiting long enough.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little prologue. Just so you know, this doesn't speak much for this story, but basically is the beginning of what is technically a trilogy. VG7 will lead into VG9 and VG8 will happen on the same time frame, but more on that later. Basically, this is my way of promising that yes, I will be writing at least a total of three new stories for this series.


	2. Wade's Apprenticeship

**Wade's Apprenticeship**

Japan seemed to be completely blanketed in thick clouds for a good few days now. The rain had been heavy for just as long, to the point where even most of the cities weren't seeing nearly as much bustle on the streets anymore. Little sun had been getting through, leaving half the nation with a gloomy feeling hanging over their heads. It wasn't the happiest sight to see, that was for sure.

"This is so amazing!" However, nothing was going to mess Wade's mood up today, that was guaranteed. Kim could only shake her head as those words exploded from his mouth again. It had to have been the hundredth time in the last hour.

"Can you believe it? Bulma Briefs, _the_ Bulma Briefs, possibly the most brilliant woman on the planet, personally chose me to work with her! And I'm only minutes away from meeting her in person!" Wade had so many stars in his eyes that they had to start floating around his head just so he could fit them all as they walked down the long path to what had to be the biggest, dome shaped building Team Possible had ever seen. The place looked like it could comfortably fit a castle inside of it. And emblazoned right across the front of it, in English, as strange as that seemed to Kim and her friends, was the name Capsule Corp.

"Yes Wade, we know. You've said the same thing, every few minutes since we first got to the airport. Back in America!" Zita groaned exasperatedly, rolling her eyes.

"Now, now, Z, let him have his moment." Felix chuckled, adjusting the umbrella coming from his wheelchair. "It is an amazing opportunity after all, just to have a conversation with any of the Briefs family. But to be noticed and handpicked to work as an apprentice to one, even from all the way on the other side of the world, and get to work in their head office of all places? That's the unreachable plateau of his profession he's reached! There's no words to describe it."

"I've got a few. Showing us up." Monique retorted amusedly, sending Wade a fake glare. "We're all set to go off to college and he gets accepted into a place where you need a series of master degrees just to apply. And he doesn't even try to apply, the woman in charge requests him! Don't I feel stupid now."

"Hey, at least you got into college. Not that I wanna anymore." Ron grinned cheekily, wrapping an arm around Kim's shoulders. "After all, that would mean that I wouldn't have time for KP or my new job on this little team."

"You just like the idea of travelling everywhere for free." Kim smiled, kissing him on the cheek as he smiled shamelessly right back. "Though, I admit it is good to have a senior member able to move around so freely."

That was the truth, a lot had changed recently. Ron had really stepped up since graduation and the alien invasion trying to take over the world, to the point where he could now stand beside Kim as an equal partner rather than a sidekick. However, that was far from the last change to occur for Team Possible. With graduation behind them and college spread out across the world close ahead, both they and their friends had been determined to spend as much time together as possible over the summer. Which was natural and common, even for Kim and Ron. What made it special however, was the fact that it had resulted in Felix, Monique and even Zita coming along on a good number of missions, whether Kim knew and accepted their help or not. By the end of the first month, Kim didn't see any point in denying it anymore and had officially declared them to be part of Team Possible. It's not like she could stop them really, they'd proved time and again that they'd figure out how to tag along, and besides, it made her feel a little more relaxed having a bigger team. She'd felt far too unnerved lately.

Even before the invasion, Kim had had an unsettling feeling she couldn't shake. She couldn't even tell you what it was; only that it scared her. She only knew of one thing that even seemed to connect to it and that was the strange dreams she'd been having. Some were nightmares, depicting black monsters with creepy yellow eyes or men in trench coats using supernatural powers, like those of Team Go or Danny Phantom, while others were easy victories or pleasant moments with other people, heroes like herself. The only problem with those was that the people she assumed were allies or friends were always shadowed. She could never see their faces. But still, it all left her with the same feeling, one that was dramatically emphasised by the invasion and the sheer amount of luck involved in their victory: She and Ron weren't enough. Not nearly enough. They needed help.

So, all in all, she was very happy that the people she trusted most, outside Ron and her family of course, all decided to step up and assist them. They hadn't figured out how it was going to work once college started, but Ron was free to travel fast, Wade could direct and work from just about anywhere and they were sure that the rest would work itself out sooner or later.

Still, they'd cross that bridge when they came to it. Right now, all they cared about was accompanying Wade to his definition of paradise.

Reaching the main entrance, Wade practically skipped inside, much to the amusement of the others. By the time they passed through the doors, he was already at the front desk, practically vibrating with excitement.

"Hello young man. How can I help you today?" The blond woman asked, smiling as brightly as the sun. Kim had to admit, she was good at her job. Her happiness didn't only look genuine, she seemed to be as happy as Wade himself was. She was a pale skinned woman, looking like she'd fit in much better in Norway than Japan, and was starting to get up there in age, but she had yet to show the first sign of genuine old age. No age lines, no grey hairs, nothing. Her fashion sense was definitely up to date too, though it did confuse her a little that she would be allowed to wear clothes like tight jeans and shoulder-less shirts in a professional company, particularly one that specialises in science and machinery. It was hardly professional or safe looking.

"Hi ma'am, I'm here to see Miss Bulma Briefs. My name's Wade."

"Oh, so you're the third one. It's wonderful to meet you." The woman's smile actually managed to grow happier as she pulled herself up. "Come with me everyone. My daughter is waiting for you and I'm sure you'll love to meet the other apprentices."

"You're daughter?" Ron cried, dropping his jaw. "But you don't look nearly old enough to be the mother of Bulma Briefs!"

"That would explain how she can dress so fashionably here." Monique grinned, nodding approvingly.

"I'm a little more surprised that we're getting through so easy." Zita sweatdropped with a grin. "Wade was like twenty feet ahead of us, not many would just assume that we were with him."

"Of course you're all invited in." Mrs Briefs chimed, taking the time to give each of them a smile. "Wade was chosen for his rather amazing exploits and many of them are connected to Kim Possible. Bulma was quite keen to meet you too my dear and your friends are more than welcome to come along."

"Thank you ma'am." Felix smiled, rolling right after her. "I hope it isn't too much bother having the rest of us tagging along."

"No, not at all." Mrs Briefs replied merrily. "I love having lots of company and the people Bulma attracts are always fun and amusing. Besides, a few of you were already expected to come with young Wade."

"We were expected?" Kim asked, raising a curious eyebrow. "I was under the impression that Wade hadn't mentioned anything."

"Yeah, I didn't. So how did you know that I'd bring company?" Wade frowned.

"Well, you came from the other side of the world, are still very young, and your parents aren't coming for another week." Mrs Brief giggled, waving her finger in the air. Naturally, that had the whole group sweatdropping and embarrassed.

"Well, when you put it that way..." Kim muttered.

"You'd expect someone to come along, wouldn't ya?" Felix mused, scratching the back of his head.

"What other option have you got, abandon a thirteen year old at an airport?" Monique rolled her eyes. Zita just looked at the ground for a moment, annoyed with her lack of thought while Ron just laughed. He'd long embraced the fact that he was an idiot.

"So, you mentioned other apprentices." Wade commented, a little desperate to forget about that little joint blank moment. "Am I likely to know any of them?"

"I imagine so." Mrs Briefs grinned as they reached an elevator. Pressing the button, the doors opened immediately, they were happy to discover that it provided plenty of room even with Felix' chair taking up space as they headed up. "Or at least one. She's not so famous for her own work like you, but for her family in general. The other's an upcoming prodigy from Tokyo. Now there's an interesting boy. He does things more smoothly than even my husband."

"Seriously!" Kim and Wade cried, both of them gaping at the laughing woman before Wade went on. "But Mr Briefs is a world renowned genius! He designed, developed and constructed the Capsule program all by himself! How could anyone possibly do things better than him?"

"I don't know, but he found a way." Mrs Briefs shrugged happily right as the elevator came to a stop. "Well, here we are. Welcome to my home."

"Home?" Ron barely had time for a confused frown before the doors opened to reveal a massive room that could only be a part of living space. Most of it was split into three areas, a decently sized kitchen, a dining area and a much larger lounging area with long, comfortable looking couches, coffee table and a huge TV that was currently displaying cartoons for two little boys, who just so happened to... "Holy cow, those boys are floating in the air!"

"Yeah, they tend to do that." Mrs Briefs laughed, guiding the stunned group of teenagers in, drawing both boys' attention. "These are my grandson, Trunks, and Goten Son. His family is very close to ours. Boys, meet, Wade and his friends. Wade's the third apprentice."

"Sup." The purple haired boy barely passed them a smirk before turning his attention back to the TV. The other however, was much more sociable.

"Hi! I'm Goten! And hey, you're Kim Possible, right?" The teens barely had time to gasp before a bright, smiling face and a mop of black, messy hair was right up in Kim's face. "You're a great hero, like our Dads and my brother. Gohan thinks highly of you."

"Your Dad's a hero? Do they all fly too?" Ron asked, staring at the boy in wonder.

"Gohan...?" Kim however, was lost in thought. That one word had her receding into her head as an image of a teenage boy looking much like Goten floated before her mind's eye before disappearing within a golden light. "Gohan...Saiyaman."

"Huh? What was that, KP?"

"Hey, that's the silly codename Gohan uses sometimes! You know of him?"

"I...yeah." Kim nodded with a frown, turning back and forth from her confused boyfriend and the excited little boy. "I don't know how, but yeah, I know him. I...I think I met him."

"But Ron hasn't?" Felix exclaimed, thrown off by the completely nonplussed look her response caused on his friend's face. "How did that work out?"

"I have no idea! Especially since...I feel like he was my friend. Is he here right now too?" Kim asked hastily, turning back to the happy kid before someone could ask something else. Unfortunately, she was quickly disheartened when Goten shook his head.

"Sorry, he took off with a boy and a talking duck to try and find the duck's uncle. He said something about the duck uncle bringing doom."

"No, he called him 'The Duck of Doom', moron." Trunks butted in, rolling his eyes, though never once looking back. "Apparently, some talking duck got turned into a super villain and they want to turn him back to normal. Apparently he's a mouse king's magician. Wouldn't have believed any of it if the other talking duck hadn't shown up here and run around faster than we can fly."

"Seriously? Talking ducks and mouse kings? Do we need to find a grown up to talk to or did we wonder into Wonderland?" Zita cried, staring at everyone in wild disbelief. Not that she was the only one, Felix, Wade and Monique looked just as dubious about all of it, though Ron seemed to be in awe of it all.

Kim however, didn't notice any of it. The claims of mouse king and a duck magician had her head pulsing yet again, bringing new images and thoughts with it. For just a moment, what felt so greatly like memories ripped themselves from some deep fog in the back of her head that she hadn't even noticed was there before and revealed themselves. This time, it was full images, every one of them depicting a humanoid duck in Wizarding wear and carrying a wand with a star in it and a mouse that's ears reached a little higher than her knee in black clothes and wielding a giant gold and silver key.

' _Keyblade.'_ She had no clue where that word came from, but the instant she focused on that key, the word demanded to be known and was quickly followed by a series of other images that came through so fast that they hurt her head. A demonic looking blade with a white wing coming form it in the hands of a tall, silver haired teen, a Keyblade covered in flowers and wielded by a sweet looking, red haired girl, a very complex blue and white blade in the hands of a brunette boy with a very kind face. And then, with far more detail than any before, a blond boy that sent a great flood of happiness and sadness through her heart crossed her mind, bearing two keyblades, one black and deadly and one white, bearing what looked a bit like a snowflake at the end. This one she knew very well, she was sure of that. But something bad had happened to him, she was sure of that too. She just didn't have a clue what.

"Roxas." The word was barely a whisper. No one else in the room could have possibly heard it as they argued with the boys over the truth of their claims, Mrs Brief just laughing at the scene. But still, it was enough to bring both a smile and tears to Kim's face. The image of him in her head was becoming clearer by the second, bringing what had to be other flickers of memories of him with it. She could see him relaxing with Gohan, who was only becoming clearer in her mind too, the more she focused. She could see him playing soccer with her and the other shadowy figures that had been plaguing her dreams. And, she could see him comforting and caring for another face that was leaving the fog behind. A blond girl...

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Kim gasped as a bright, happy voice shot right through her thoughts, snapping her back to reality. Turning to the door, she found a smiling woman with blue hair and eyes who looked to be in her thirties at the most. Unlike Mrs Briefs, she was wearing a lab coat and her clothes were much more suitable for lab purposes, though she still had plenty of fashion flare about her and had just as happily forgone any attempts at looking professional. Still, her eyes held the look of plenty of intellect, something she was very accustomed to seeing with her parents. There was no doubt in her mind who this was, even if she hadn't seen her in Wade's magazines or on TV before. "I'm Bulma. It's nice to finally meet you all. Please, take a seat."

"It's about to get boring in here." Trunks sighed, taking one look around the room before snagging Goten by the arm. "Come on, let's go to the training room."

"YEAH!" Trunks almost hit his head on the floor as Goten cheered and sped up so fast that he was now dragging Trunks. Reaching the elevator, he opened the door, completely ignoring that the elevator was already gone, before quickly turning back to the still awestruck teenagers and amused women. "Nice to meet you, Kim Possible and friends! I hope to see you later. Maybe you could even train with us! Bye!" And with that, both boys shot down the elevator shaft faster than the eye could follow, leaving only a stunned silence in their wake.

"Well, that was unusual. And weird. " Monique muttered.

"No kidding." Zita stared.

"Do they by any chance have all the powers of the Z Fighters?" Wade asked, turning curiously back to Bulma. "They mentioned that their Dad's and brother were heroes. Goten's appearance and their flight suggests that that's the group they're talking about."

"That's right. I'm impressed that you know that name. Not surprised though." Bulma smiled, adding a wink to the end.

"Z Fighters?" Ron asked, looking lost once again, not that Felix, Monique and Zita looked much different. "Who are they?"

"A group of heroes that protect Japan. They're said to be the most powerful team in the world." Kim answered immediately, getting a round of raised eyebrows and dropped jaws from all of her friends, minus Wade. That was expected though, she was even surprising herself. "The group has had a total of six members so far, two of which are unfortunately dead now, and all of them were aliens. Three Saiyans, two Saiyan-human hybrids and a Nemakian. They were slowly gathered over time by the winner of the last World Martial Arts Tournament, Goku Son. Each of them has the power of Ki manipulation, allowing them to learn how to fly and unleash a series of energy related techniques, super strength, durability and speed at simply ridiculous levels and all of them are master martial artists."

"All correct." Bulma nodded, a knowing smile planted firmly on her face the whole time Kim was talking. "In addition to a few other tricks specific to their species."

"If that's all true, how come none of us have ever heard of them?" Felix asked, though there wasn't a shred of disbelief anywhere on him. In fact, he was leaning forward in his chair, keen to learn more.

"And if Kim knows about them, how come I don't?" Ron cried frustratedly, only to freeze a second later, his growing wide. "Actually...I, I kinda think that it sounds familiar, but I can't figure out from where."

"I've felt like that for a while now myself." Wade admitted, looking thoroughly perplexed for the first time in Kim's life. "I'm not entirely sure how I learned of them either."

"Everything I said just popped in my head within the last five minutes." Kim admitted softly, just as lost as the boys. "How is that possible? And why do I feel like I've been here and met you before, Bulma? Have I done a mission here before?" She asked, frowning deeply at the genius. Who, Kim was ready to guarantee, knew exactly what was going on. That knowing smile hadn't left her face yet.

"I do have information on that to share, but we'll get to that a little later." That wasn't the answer Kim wanted to hear, but she couldn't voice her irritation as Bulma turned her smile from her to Wade. "Right now, how about we tour the lab and I show what and who you're going to be working with here?"

"We can go now?" Well, that settled it. Wade was up and looked like a kid in a toy store that had just been told he could have every toy he liked. There was no way that Kim or the others could rain on his parade now.

"Well, I see no reason not to." Bulma nodded before turning to the others. "The rest of you are welcome to come along now too if you like, but if you would rather stay here, you are welcome to. As she would have mentioned already, Mom loves guests. You can of course, check everything out for yourselves anytime during your stay."

"Sweet! I'll stay here." Ron instantly declared, sinking back comfortably into the couch. "I still haven't ditched my jetlag yet."

"I'd love to talk some fashion." Monique stated, turning to Mrs Brief with a smile. "I'm studying it in college next semester and I'd love to get a handle on the current 'what's hot' line in Japan, if you don't mind."

"Oh, I'd love to!" Mrs Briefs nodded merrily. "Bulma and I have plenty of magazines around here. We can talk all day."

"Wonderful! That's perfect!"

"Would it be possible for someone to show me the training room?" Zita asked. "I'd like to see how those boys train. It's similar to these Z Fighter parents of theirs, right?"

"Exactly like them. I'll be happy to drop you off there on the way to the lab." Bulma nodded, getting a big smile and a thankyou in return.

"Well, you three have fun. I'm gonna come along." Felix stated, an excited smile of his own spreading wide across his face. "This place is awesome, even my Mom thinks highly of the company. I gotta check it out."

"I'll come too. Someone should probably be there for actually supporting Wade." Kim declared, giving a beaming Wade a proud look as everyone leaving got to their feet.

"Ok, then lets head out." Bulma cheered, her knowing smile turning into a pleased one as she headed back towards the elevator . "We've got a lot of ground to cover."

' _And a lot more surprises on the way.'_ Kim was absolutely sure of it. Bulma knew a lot about the things suddenly appearing in her head. She had a lot of answers. Every look that had crossed her face since she'd first entered the room reeked of hidden knowledge and it only grew greater when Kim gave information about things she couldn't remember learning about. She'd been in the game far too long not to notice it. Hell, her brothers gave it to her every week. The only question was, were the answers she had good or bad.


	3. Bulma's Ulterior Motive

**Bulma's Ulterior Motive**

Zita's stop might have been the first on the list and not sound all that interesting to people with Kim's life and background, but it turned out to be a great first stop. The room, for the most part, was bare, with some weights and punching bags placed around the walls, but in the very centre was a strange machine, reaching from the floor right up to the ceiling. Just looking at it, Kim could tell that it was more advanced than anything Drakken, Dementor or any of her villains had ever made.

Then, if that wasn't intriguing enough for you, there was the two boys sparring hard and fast all over the room.

"Whoa! Look at them go!" Felix cried, his face splitting into a stunned smile while his eyes zipped back and forth in their sockets.

"I'm...I'm having a little trouble keeping up." Kim stuttered, thoroughly gobsmacked.

"No kidding!" Zita nodded, though she looked far more amazed and excited than anything else. "They never stop moving. And look at their moves!"

Kim could only nod at that, she'd caught it too. Other than flying, the boys weren't using anything but your run of the mill martial arts, something Kim was adept in recognising and analysing. For seven and eight year olds their skill level was amazing!

Trunks, she could tell, was a little more calculating in his moves, effectively blocking or dodging in ways designed to take advantage of openings before delivering powerful blows to the first vulnerable place he found, as opposed to Goten, who seemed to enjoy the thrill of quick flurrying attacks. He seemed particularly fond of blocking Goten's punches with his knee before spinning in the air and bringing his other heel down hard into Goten's upper back.

"BAAH!" Caught off guard, Goten crashed hard into the ground with a bang, immediately eliciting gasps from the watching teens. Protective instinct instantly kicking in, Kim sprung into action.

"NO!" Only for a suddenly freaked Bulma to snatch her arm and yank her right back just one step before she would have entered the training area, using her body to push back Wade and block the concerned Felix and Zita while she was at it.

"Bulma, what are you doing?" Wade cried, stumbling back onto his butt. "The kid-"

"Is fine." Bulma broke in, right as, sure enough, a near unscathed Goten shot back up with a flying kick.

"That won't work again, Trunks!"

"We'll see about that!"

"Huh?" All four teens could only gape as Trunks dodged and retaliated with an elbow jab only for Goten to flip in the air and kick it away before the pair of them sunk back into their original pattern. It was as if that crash never happened, ignoring a few small bruises.

"A Saiyan's durability is much greater than a human's and experience has suggested that the hybridisation with human DNA has only improved it, though we're not sure how that worked." Bulma explained, taking a calming breath herself before turning to each of them apologetically. "Sorry, there's a couple of things I probably should have mentioned on the way here and the dangers of stepping beyond this is one of them." She added, raising her hand as if petting thin air, only to stun the group as air started rippling like water. Following the ripples, they could only stare in amazement as they spread out until they reached the floor, walls and ceiling.

"Is this an air barrier?" Wade practically squealed, raising his hands and laughing as he created some ripples of his own. "Amazing!"

"We use the same compression systems we use for our capsules to prevent anything within the room from coming out." Bulma nodded proudly, chuckling as Wade continued to joyfully play with the air. "It was a challenge to set it up for an open space like this and to allow air to pass through, but it was well worth the effort. And saves both a tone of lives and money on repairs, let me tell you." She added, her mood shifting to fond exasperation as she turned back to her son. "These two combined are nothing on the destructive tendencies of Trunks' father. But it was dominantly designed to protect everyone outside the room from that!" She added firmly pointing right at the machine in the centre.

"What does it do?" Zita asked, suddenly a lot more wary of the place. So were Kim and Felix for that matter. With the way Bulma spoke and had acted, Kim was just about ready to back far away and never come back.

"It's an artificial gravity machine." Bulma answered, staring hard at each of them with a look that reflected both pride and caution. "One specifically designed to reach up to three times Earth's gravity."

"SAY WHAT!"

"Hu-WHAA!" Caught off by the screaming, both of the boys lost focus and plummeted hard into the ground. Groaning, Goten pouted as he rubbed his head while Trunks scowled at their audience, but Kim and her friends didn't pay attention to any of that. They were far too busy paling or gaping at the ridiculously dangerous machine that had previously been a point of minor interest, one that was humming and lit up, very much active.

' _Those boys...they're...'_ Kim couldn't believe what she was hearing. Who would build such a machine, let alone let your kids play with it? And what kind of bodies did these boys have? Survival should have been impossible, yet they were moving and flying around with ease! How...

"Obviously, the boys aren't using, or even allowed, to use nearly that high a setting." Bulma went on calmly, as if she was in the middle of a lecture, as she pointed to a screen on the centre of the machine that was big and visible enough for them to see even from where they stood. "As the screen shows, the machine is currently only increasing the gravity to 1.3 times Earth's gravity, a setting that is survivable and manageable to even a normal human, as long as they have well prepared for it. To use a setting above twice Earth's gravity, something only Vegeta is crazy enough to do, you need a password that only a few people know. The boys are allowed to use up to 1.6, as the Saiyan body evolved on a planet that held that level of gravity and they have worked their way up from our planet's gravity level to that one level at a time. Given time for preparation, strength increase and adaption, I'm sure Kim would be able to reach the machine's current level, but jumping in now would have had very damaging effects to anyone, so always take great care when entering this particular facility."

"Duly noted." Wade muttered quietly, everyone else simply nodding their heads at best. That was one dangerous setup the Briefs had going, and far too easy to enter to boot.

"Forgive me for asking, but shouldn't something so clearly only meant for superheroes' use be a little more difficult to enter?" Felix asked slowly, biting his lip as he finally turned back to Bulma, half expecting to be snapped at for the insinuation. However, all Bulma did was shrug.

"Nah, this area is well away from the labs and other frequently visited departments of the company. For the most part, only family members and close friends enter this area at all and everyone who'd ever have a reason to come here is well warned of the danger. And besides, no one ever wants to come here anyway." She added with a smirk. "Vegeta is quite terrifying to just about everyone. Particularly with that empty threat of his about blasting you into oblivion."

' _Ok, not even touching that one.'_ Kim had had enough shocking events thrown her way to last the next few hours and more were on the way without an explanation behind some scary, temperamental Prince of the Sai...ok, apparently her mind was supplying information on its own anyway.

"So...this place is equipped specifically to train super strong aliens? Does it have any other...interesting features?" Zita asked, partially excited and partly scared of the answer. Though, none of that stopped her from lighting up like a Christmas tree and gasping in awe as Goten whipped up his palm and shot a small, blue blast point blank in Trunks' face, sending the purpled haired boy smacking hard into the wall. "Now that's cool! Those walls have to be as thick as a mountain!"

"Actually, while they are reinforced, they survive mostly because of the compression system." Bulma responded, shaking her head sourly. "You have no idea how many times I've had to have the damn things fixed! But to answer your question, there's also combat droids with different weapons and floating machines designed either to shoot lasers or deflect energy blasts. Depending on what setting you put them on and how many you fight at once, it's quite the workout. You're welcome to give a go later." She offered, smiling as Zita turned to her practically with stars in her eyes. "There are levels for normal humans too. Even I sometimes go in for a round. Though, I was once told that I should have competed in the old World Martial Arts Tournaments." She added with a laugh.

"To keep a son like that in line, I'll believe it." Felix muttered, only to get a snort from Bulma in return. "Still, my mother would like to talk to you about some of that sometime, Bulma. She's one of the leading specialists in cyber robotics worldwide, but this would impress even her."

"I'll have to remember to set up a meeting." Bulma smiled before heading back toward the main company. "And I doubt that will be all we talk about. Now, how about we get started on the actual tour of the facility?"

"I'm ready!" Wade practically leapt after her in his glee, heralding laughter from everyone, bar Trunks, who'd simply smirked at him before taking advantage of Goten's distraction with a backfist. Normally, Wade would be embarrassed by that, but he was in far too good a mood to care. In fact, he actually continued to basically skip along.

"Have fun, guys." Zita called, her voice full of mirth as she waved after them before turning back to the fight. It was only getting even more interesting now. As Trunks shot down for another brutal strike, Goten screamed and flung him away with a surge of pure, white energy, his aura dancing around him. This was more intense than Everlot, there was no way she was missing even a second of this.

...

Once they actually reached the company portion of the building, the group found themselves a lot more relaxed and in their element. Not that even Wade was able to keep calm as they visited each lab, team and division. Though labs and advanced, complicated machinery were commonplace in the lairs of Professor Dementor or Dr Drakken, not to mention the space station where Mr Possible and Felix' mother worked, this seemed to be on a whole other level.

Though known worldwide for its capsule technology, Capsule Corp was far more diverse and at the front of a number of different waves in technology. From washing machines, to portable houses, to jet planes, if you could put it in a capsule, they were designing new, high tech versions for it. And just about anything could go into a capsule. The only limitation seemed to be if it was alive.

' _If I couldn't see all this, I'd swear magic was involved.'_ Kim mused as a button was hit on a small cottage type house only for the whole thing to disappear in a puff of smoke, a larger than average capsule rolling around being the only thing left as the gas cleared. "That was just...wow."

"You guys haven't seen many of these, have you?" Bulma asked, watching with amusement as all three of them gaped in awe or wonder.

"No, they're a bit expensive for the average person." Felix responded lightly, a wry smile crossing his face as he turned back to her. It was definitely a large understatement. Naturally, this kind of technology was of high value, only made greater by the fact that there was no competition. Even companies that had tried to reverse engineer the tech tended to fail spectacularly, leaving Capsule Corp with full control of the distribution. Something they took full advantage of and had government circles all over the world annoyed.

Seeing their desire to use his tech for military advantage and other less pleasant opportunities, Mr Briefs had refused to make agreements with any leading political body, keeping that aspect of his company extremely private. As such, though the world over knew and desired their tech, Capsule Corp's companies only really operated in Japan, with a few small transactions with neighbouring countries. Put all that together and you'd find it equals finding a capsule is a rarity for most of the world.

Chuckling, Bulma gave him a conceding nod before moving on toward the less mechanical divisions, stopping briefly only when Felix cried out in amazement at the sight of a hover car that put Drakken's to shame.

"We even have a division working on new, better performing spaceships." Bulma mentioned as they waited for Felix to finish a conversation with an eager mechanic and designer currently testing the vehicle. "I think we're doing pretty good, but I'll admit that even we can't stand up to the projects your father develops, Kim. I'll have to try and get NASA's Middleton staff to do a joint project with us one day."

"I'm sure that my dad would love it." Kim grinned, before turning back to her wheelchair bound friend with a sigh. "And I'm also sure that he will not be ready to leave for quite a while."

"Probably not." Wade agreed, though he wasn't about to complain. Sure, he wanted to progress to where he'd be mostly working, but he was more than happy to wait. With the ship's designer in the bay and bragging about his pride and joy, the boys were happily learning about everything from how fast and high the car could go to the calibrations and fuel intake that allowed it to work. It was more than fascinating.

Still, Bulma seemed to have a plan set out for the day, so it wasn't too long before she reined them in and on their way. They moved on to large chemical labs, where they found scientists working on a number of almost random compounds and mixtures all over the place. One lab was focused solely on different types of fuel, while others seemed to be working on projects that reminded her a great deal of some of the things Wade gave her. She had a feeling a lot of her gadgets were going to be upgraded in the near future when Wade started bouncing on his feet, blabbering about his own comparable projects and the possibilities on advancement being endless.

Wade would be spending a lot of time in there, of that everyone was certain. However, it wasn't until the end of the tour that they found the area where all the apprentices would work most frequently with Bulma.

"Welcome to our official area, my own, personal lab." Hitting a button on the wall, Bulma smiled with pride as a door slid open to reveal a very spacious room. Close to the Briefs' living area, the place was very high up and had one wall made almost entirely of windows. The area looked a lot like a miniature version of the company itself, sporting a little bit of everything in different areas. The corner nearest to the door was set up like a computer lab, with multiple benches each holding a computer, a printer, a basic scanner and one or two unique pieces of technology that Kim didn't know the uses for. The next area, up toward the windows, held a lot of mechanical equipment and tools, mostly meant for smaller tasks by the looks of things, while the other side from the door held benches and equipment designed for bigger constructions. A series of monitors and button bearing machines nearly coated the walls along all three sides, any function they could hold being a mystery to Kim, unless they were all involved with the computers or the ventilation system.

The final quarter of the room however, was much less sterile and more homey. Book cases lined the wall meeting the window while large, comfy looking couches form a semicircle around a low table, complete with a coffee machine. And there, sitting on the couches, were two teenagers that could only be the other apprentices.

"Hi there. I was wondering when you were going to show up." A girl with blue eyes and long, red hair, maybe one year younger than Kim, smiled over her shoulder as the door closed behind them. Closing a very thick book, she rose to her feet and met them halfway across the room, letting them all get a good view of a very recognisable person. "It's nice to meet you all. I'm sorry, I know you're Kim, but which one of you nice young men is Wade?"

"That's me!" Wade grinned, quickly stepping forward and shaking her hand. "This our friend and new teammate, Felix."

"Nice to meet you, my lady." Felix nodded. "Am I correct in calling you Jazz Fenton?"

"That you are." Jazz smiled right back, moving to shake his offered hand before moving on to Kim. "It's not often I get to meet other teams in the world saving business. However...I feel like I have met you." A slight frown crossed her face as she offered her hand once more, which Kim quickly took in her own.

"You know something? I feel the same way." Something about Jazz was definitely triggering that fog in her head again. She knew of Jasmine Fenton, of course, her whole family was very famous. Danny Phantom was the only hero in the world who's fame and reputation were as well known as Kim's. Hell, he had a statue in every major city around the world for crying out loud! All coming to a head due to an asteroid disaster he helped to resolve.

However, he was hardly the only Fenton involved in that. Even before Phantom was revealed to be a Fenton, a huge amount of recognition went to the enormous amount of work Fenton Works put in to the technology that allowed his plan to become possible. In addition, the event assured the entire world that ghosts existed, rather than just being a gimmick Amity Park was using to fetch tourists, which not only proved that the Fentons weren't crazy, but put them all right in the international spotlight as the world's foremost experts on ghosts and ectoplasmic technology. Though neither a major fighter or scientist like her family, Jazz was well involved with a lot of Fenton Works' new business and did occasionally assist with volatile ghosts, giving her plenty of the spotlight herself.

Having such well known faces, it was obvious that they would know of each other, but one look at Jazz and Kim was sure that she felt the same thing. It wasn't as strong as the sense of knowing she got at the mention of Gohan, but it was much stronger than what she'd felt for the Z Fighters. Both were sure, though they couldn't remember it, they had met at least once or twice before.

"Huh, weird." However, while Kim was a bit stuck on it, Jazz was quite content to wave it off and figure it out another day. At the moment, she was much more interested in the other apprentice. "Henry, don't be antisocial! Come and say hello."

"Hmm?" That was when everyone turned their attention back to the couches and once again, the Deja vureturned. However, this time it had her a lot more on edge.

Sitting in a meditative position, just opening calm, inquisitive, grey eyes, was a teenage boy, about sixteen years old and of Chinese decent. Messy, dark blue hair covered his head and though his green and brown clothes kept most of his body from view, Kim knew with the utmost certainty that though he was lithe in form, he still had sufficiently defined muscles and could throw one hell of a punch. Not only that, but the knowledge that this boy was surrounded by machinery also set of a few warning lights in her head and for a second, she could have sworn that his eyes glowed green. All in all, she was sure she'd met him before too and the experiences wasn't a pleasant one.

"Sorry if I was being rude." Yet, strangely enough, Kim couldn't for the life of her figure out why she felt anything unsettling about him as he rose to his feet and bowed slightly before looking back up with a small, sheepish smile as he took everyone in. "I'm afraid I was in a world of my own. I'm Henry Wong. It is a pleasure to meet all of you."

Yep, Kim had no clue what could be wrong with him. The boy was the epitome of polite and well mannered. He held himself with much more restraint, both physically and emotionally, than anyone else in the room, but his face still suggested nothing more than a friendly, curious nature at heart. She'd pay attention for a while, but Kim was quite willing to ignore that initial less than pleasant feeling she'd had before. Who knows, it might have only been a result of circumstances or something. It wouldn't be the first time she'd misjudged someone.

"Very formal, isn't he?" Bulma commented lightly, petting the boy on the shoulder as she led everyone to the chairs. Making herself comfy, she turned on the coffee machine and only waited long enough to take a sip of the completed beverage before moving on. "Ok everyone, as you know, to some extent, each one of you has been chosen for your intellect. Wade here," She started, waving her hand to the youngest person in the room. "Is an all round genius, with sufficient talent in all the average fields Capsule Corp involves itself in. Jazz was accepted dominantly for her knowledge of ectoplasm and technology that is powered by it. She also allows for a well developed business connection to Fenton Works while continuing her studies in psychology, among other things. Finally, Henry is an amazing programmer for his age and an even better engineer.

"I hope to help you develop these skills individually, as well as help each other where your strengths and interests meet." She went on, opening a draw in her side of the table and pulling out three files, handing each one to her new apprentices. None of them wasted a second in opening them, all of them bearing varying expressions of excitement or curiosity. "These will be each of your individual and group criteria's. The work is challenging, but it will be interesting and very rewarding for all involved. Nooow..." Kim almost felt a shiver go up her spine as Bulma drew out the word. The sly, cunning smirk that instantly replaced her grin was near terrifying. "Has anyone gotten to the bottom of the contents page yet?"

Well and truly intrigued now, Felix and Kim instantly looked over Wade's shoulders and gasped along with him the second their eyes met the bottom of the page.

"VG Hero Collaboration?" Apparently they were the only ones caught off guard, for Henry was gaping at Bulma with sheer disbelief. "What's that about?"

"You know, VG sounds _really_ familiar." Wade cried, frowning hard around the room as the gears turned in his head, trying to connect unseen dots.

"And you know, two apprentices do tend to work with worldwide heroes." Felix pointed out, pointing from Wade to Jazz before tilting his head curiously at the younger redhead. "You know, you don't look the slightest bit surprised, Jazz."

"Well, I'm not really." Jazz shrugged, though she was watching the smug Bulma thoughtfully. "After all, Danny's a much more personal part as to why I'm here."

"Actually, Danny Phantom and Jazz's situation is part of what started the idea of bringing all of you here." Bulma declared, immediately shutting everyone up as everyone's attention, now more suspicious than anything else, moved back and forth from her to Jazz.

Kim however, was barely paying attention. Her mind was reeling. VG. That was something she'd seen many times and knew, subconsciously, that it was a very important pair of letters. Now, after all the jumps of random memories she couldn't remember making that popped up today, they were even more important to her. Gohan, Roxas, Danny Phantom, they were all associated with these two letters.

' _And so am I.'_ Slipping her hand into her handbag, she absentmindedly felt around until her fingers slid over a cold, rectangular piece of metal. Pulling it out, well enough to draw everyone's attention, she held up the device she'd found with a strange not on her dresser one day so many months ago that even Wade couldn't hack into. There on the lid that revealed a small computer, were the two bright, bold letters. VG.

"This was made here, wasn't it." It wasn't a question.

"That's right." Bulma grinned, sticking her hand into the draw again. This time, when it rose, it was holding an identical device. "Just like all the others. And it is because of these that Jazz came here and isn't a wreck at the disappearance of Danny. It's called a Vcom, a computer and communication device used solely by the Valour Guardians."

' _Valour Guardians!'_ Those two words set off more in Kim's, and everyone else's heads than anything before it. What seemed like countless clips of a life forgotten surged through her head, faster than she could register, yet all of them fractured, incomplete. Most people were still in shadow, and she could never tell what she was fighting or laughing about, but still, so much information she hadn't realised that she was yearning to reclaim came rushing back.

" _Wow, you really are skill! It's rare I find someone with my level of martial arts at my age."_ Gohan had laughed as he told her that during a spar. She remember that he was the only one to match her skill with just your hands and feet and she loved pairing up with him, though she was always a little nervous he'd forget to hold his massive strength back when he really got into it.

She remembered fighting Jack Spicer and Katnappe once with Danny and Roxas. She remembered Roxas having to go off and slaughter Jack's robots when the coward struck an emotional blow. She remembered a fun day at a lake with both those boys again and two others and ending up in the past. She remembered flying on the back of a dragon, fighting a man with long white hair and a black cloak who was floating before a heart shaped moon and so much more. And all of it revolved around those two words.

Pulling her head out of the fog, Kim opened the V com and turned it on, staring at the screen as it lit up with one word. Password. Looking up just long enough to see Bulma's encouraging look and the confused, disoriented ones of the others, She moved her fingers to the small keyboard and hit four buttons. _'VG03.'_

She couldn't stop the surprised gasp from leaving her mouth as the screen, rather than refuse her entry like it had so many times before, came completely to life and revealing to her a series of options. But the one she was most amazed with was right in the centre.

 _Valour Guardians Online._ Pushing the button without hesitation, she brought up a whole new screen, one that had five of eleven numbers lit up, each one, including her own, having a name and picture on either side of it.

VG01: Saiyaman. VG03: Kim Possible VG04: Danny Phantom. VG07: American Dragon. She was a little thrown off for a second at the very human face next to that name, but a small, endearing smile grew a second later as her mind claimed that yes, this was the dragon and he was fun to be with. VG11: Really Incredibly Fast Guy. Now that was a mouth full! And what's more, her mind was drawing a total blank on that one. The picture of a humanoid Duck wasn't helping either. Her memory was far from perfect, but she was very confident that the number of Guardians ended at ten. That felt very right. But still, she shrugged it off. Bulma clearly knew just about everything about all this. She could provide answers in a moment.

"So the Valour Guardians...They're a team...I think?" If Felix frowned any harder, he'd probably pop a vein as he stared down at the screen, his hands scratching vigorously at his head. "And Kim and Danny are both part of it?"

"That's correct." Bulma nodded, rising and gently pulling his arms down to his sides. All her slyness was gone now as she stared around at the gathered teens again, smiling brightly at each of them. "The Valour Guardians were a group of amazing teenagers, all coming from different groups and backgrounds, most of them, even teams. They first came together to fight an international threat known as Organisation 13 and continued from there, allying not only themselves, but their teams and entirely different aspects of the world, including the normal people, the magical creatures, ghosts, aliens, all of it. But after some time, another event happened that almost wiped us all out. I don't remember much of what that was; even I don't have a complete set of memories." She added quickly, as Kim opened her mouth, effectively cutting her off. "The long story short was that something happened that allowed the Guardians to fix it, involving a woman known as the Dimensional Witch, but this came with a price that resulted in the world forgetting what was hidden before the Organisation attacked and everything connected to it. However, while most of the world will never remember what happened and the unity it held, the Guardians and those who were well connected personally to them are starting to remember. This was accelerated by villains who attacked some of the Guardians in hopes of stopping them from reforming. Saiyaman, the American Dragon, Danny Phantom, and through them, me, the Fentons, and a few others, have gained a lot of it back.

"The event however, has left Phantom in another dimension." She went on, only stopping for a moment to have another sip of her coffee. A moment none of them could see over fast enough. All of them, bar Jazz, who clearly already knew all this, were staring at her intently, silently demanding more information. "He is on his way back, with the help of an alley by the name of King Mickey. And fortunately for the Fentons, when I designed the V coms, I took into account that two Guardians were capable of dimensional travel. It took an enormous amount of work, but I did manage to develop them enough so that you can communicate over them with someone travelling the dimensional pathways. We'll get into the details on that later, I promise." She added, shaking her head with a smile as she watched each teen grow visibly more lost and confused. "The only thing you need to know up front about all this is that Jazz coming here, and she, Gohan and his travelling companions restoring a lot of my memories gave me the idea of gathering brains and tech support people associated with the Guardians. This way, we can reconnect all of them and operate in a possibly better way than ever before.

"Each one of you is connected to and assists one of the heroes that make up the Guardians." She went on. "Or even a full-fledged hero yourself, in one case." She added, with a grin Henry's way. "That is ulterior motive to all this. The hope that together, we can regather the Guardians and use the skills that allow us to support the individual we've worked with to help all of them be better than ever before."

The whole room went quite after that and Bulma just let it stay that way. She knew full well, the information she'd given them, the memories it might have triggered, it would overwhelm all of them. Wade, Henry, especially Kim, they were all holding their heads, almost in pain as everything buzzed around their minds. Felix wasn't much better, though the return of memories was very little for him, not really having much association with Kim's hero life before recently. Jazz was more or less fine. She'd dealt with most of it before. In fact, she was already out of her seat and guiding them all through the mental whammy, trying to calm and settle them.

Offering them all the time they needed, Bulma headed for the monitors and computer systems around the room, making all the preparations she needed. When they finally did get their heads wrapped around everything, they were both going to want and need more details. Fortunately, Bulma had found everything the Guardians had stored in their archives and within Capsule Corp. when they were ready, she'd have all the precise, detailed information they could ever ask for up and ready to go.


	4. The Green Archer And The Shadows

**The Green Archer And The Shadows**

Capsule Corp was far from the only place in the world currently housing quite unusual visitors. This one however, was not exactly news anymore. Hidden high on a mountain, one few would dare try climbing, stood an enormous, ancient looking structure. Similar in design to a palace and a fortress, thick, high walls of solid stone surrounded the compound, broken only by battle towers holding very much modern weaponry while cameras were imbedded seemingly randomly into the rock. Within, the place seemed to be a mix of ancient Chinese culture and a military training compound, sporting training equipment and weapons from multiple time periods and societies, though swords, knives and bows were the weapons that were clearly the most commonly used.

The courtyard was currently full of dark clad men and women, all of them training in unarmed combat. Though training might not be the right word for it. Anyone watching them would declare every sparring match or instructor's demonstration an attempt to kill their partner. Occasionally, they would even break out of their patterns and a flash of silver would flare in their hands as hidden knives were seemingly pulled out of nowhere, or a rope would suddenly ensnare a limb or neck. Only the greatest of fighters would dare step foot in the area. Anyone else would run for their lives. Every action, every step, punch and toss was designed to quickly, quietly and affectively kill whoever they touched.

All of it was watched over by a middle aged looking man with pride. And nearly all of it was performed in the shadow of a very new, completely unexpected and very out of place piece of machinery. A five story tall robot.

However, their current visitor knew nothing of this. In fact, at this point, he knew little more than pain and misery.

Deep within the palace-like structure, sat a young boy, no older than sixteen who could not look like more of a mess if he tried. Clad in little more than the chain around his ankle, the boy was visibly shivering. What remained of his clothes had long been reduced to little more than threads and scraps decorating the cold, rough stone floor of his cell. His once tanned skin was dangerously pale, though it was tricky to tell, partially because of the almost nonexistent light that managed to reach him, but mostly because he was covered in large, dark bruises, open wounds and long dried blood.

Curled up in a ball with his arms wrapped around his legs tightly, the only thing his could attempt to try to warm up and protect what remained of his dignity, dull blue eyes stared blankly around the room. Deep underground, the entire place, bar the metal door, was made of solid stone. Damp and dank, with no windows, the only source of light or speck of heat came solely from the torches burning down the hallway that struggled to get anything through the barred window of the door, the only window the cell had. Even the inside was almost completely bare. It had a toilet, probably so his captors would never have to clean bodily waste from the place, but other than that, there was nothing but various chains used to constrain prisoners to the walls. There wasn't so much as a bed, the room wasn't designed for long stays. He'd learned early on that the League of Shadows, as they called themselves, didn't normally keep prisoners. Their targets were generally killed before they even knew they were there.

He had completely lost track of how long he'd been there. With no chances to see the sun or a clock, he never even knew if it was day or night. His captors seemed to be active at all times and meals were brought to him sporadically. He could have been there for weeks or months, he hadn't the slightest clue. It felt like an eternity.

' _Only I could have such ridiculous luck.'_ That was the first thought that had actually fully formed in his head in hours, his mind shutting down on him as his pain numbed. Still, truer words couldn't be spoken. For the poor boy, it had been one disaster after another.

It had started pretty routinely for him. As usual, he had been trying to prove his worth as a crew member of The Gekko, making repairs, helping fight the frequent attempts of the Government to capture them and aid in the newest plan to resolve their constant money troubles when, right in the middle of the latest fight to break out, a hole opened up in thin air right in the Nirvash's path. The next thing he knew, he was breaking through some mountain cavern. Confused, disoriented and very lost, he had hidden the Nirvash and set off to figure out where he was and what had happened. However, before he could do anything, a sharp blow had struck his neck and all went black. By the time he'd awakened, he was in his new cell.

Screaming for help, that it was some kind of mistake, had only drawn a large, bulky, bald man and began his suffering. The man had demanded information on his machine, what it was, how to work it and how it was made. At first, the boy was completely confused. The Nirvash was a well known machine to all military powers after all, and similar, though far less impressive units were pretty common sights in all major forces. Still, he gave them nothing, not that he could answer many of the man's questions to begin with, and with that, the painful kind of interrogation began.

The poor boy screamed himself hoarse every time. These assassins knew what they were doing. They needed him, so they couldn't kill him, but that didn't stop them. They were well trained in this too, causing great pain, but ensuring that none of it was life threatening. In fact, none of it was even permanent. With open wounds, he was at risk of infections, but if he were to get away, his body would make a full recovery with nothing but scars to show for it. Still, the pain was excruciating. Even now, simply raising a limb could leave him screaming and spasming in agony. It hadn't taken long for him to crack and scream everything he knew. Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly enough. In fact, the bald guy was sure that he was lying. And so his hell went on.

It was only recently, a few days maybe, that it had finally stopped. He only saw anyone when they came to feed him and check his vitals. He wasn't sure if the man and his fellow interrogators finally believed him or if they'd just given up, but he didn't care, he only hoped that they wouldn't start again.

Still, either way, it was clear that they weren't planning to let him go or aid him. He had completely given up hope for escape. His body was useless, he had no idea where he was and what little he'd managed to overhear had made it clear, wherever he was wasn't even in his world. He had heard these people mentioning the hole, a portal, that brought him here, talking about a different dimension. He'd heard them commenting on how none who'd crossed over had returned. Even if he did get out of this cell, he had nowhere to go.

His eyes growing heavy, he allowed them to close and leaned back against the wall. His body forever demanded rest lately, which he could only hope was a sign of healing, and he was happy to comply. His dreams came as frequently as his nightmares, and both were preferable to reality right now. Especially when they focused on the blue haired beauty back on the Gekko. _'Eureka.'_

...

He was happy to find that this time around, his dreams had been quite pleasant. They simply depicted an average day on the Gekko, being teased by the older guys, chasing after the kids that hated him and the warm smiles Eureka kept sending his way as he did. So simple and normally leaving him feeling incredibly embarrassed, yet it made him so happy. It was funny really, how he felt so at peace now when envisioning things that always made him so insecure before.

However, it all came crashing down as a screech of metal had him jolting awake and freezing as the motion irritated all his injuries and stiff muscles.

Whimpering, he slowly opened fearful eyes as the intruder walked into his room, focusing his vision immediately to their hands. That was what he always did, for it would tell him in an instant what they were there to do. He only had two kinds of visitors after all, the kind that came in with a tray of food and the kind that came to question him. His breath immediately hitched in fear a second later, for there was no tray in those hands.

"P...p...please. I-I-I told you all I kn-kn-know." His mouth was failing him, he could barely get his stuttering out and even then, it was barely a whisper. His throat was sore and dry and his heart was pumping like crazy. He didn't want to be hurt again. He couldn't handle it, it was amazing that he hadn't gone completely insane already. He was just starting to hope that he would get the chance to let the pain go away, if that hope was taken away now...

"Relax. You're going to make those wounds worse." That was all it took to shut him up and give his visitor a proper look. And to pull his legs closer to his body as his face heated up at the sight of a girl that had definitely never been to see him before.

He doubted she was much older than him, if at all, though she was in a much more impressive physical condition than he'd ever been. She was a dominantly a Caucasian, though there were some slight hints of Asian ancestry if you looked hard, with long, blond hair that she tied back and grey eyes. She clearly spent a lot of time working out, for she had plenty of muscle, but just enough to say that she was dangerous without taking anything away from her femininity.

Her clothes were very different from what he'd seen here previously too. Though most stuck with the usual assassin's style or normal skin tight clothes, she was clad head to toe in green leather, complete with a mask. Her midriff and arms were the only things bare, though her wrists had bracers on. The other notable things were the lighter green stripes running down the sides of her pants, her combat boots and the light green arrow symbol emblazoning her chest. Still, what really stunned him above all else was the look in her eyes. when he finally managed to force himself to look at her again, his scared and embarrassed blue eyes, rather than seeing the anger or promises of pain, met troubled grey ones.

"I promise, I'm not here to hurt you." She stated softly, slowly moving toward him, making him tense again. Especially when he noticed that was carrying a bag. Who knew what could be in that? "Just relax. My name is Artemis. Your name's Renton, right? I'm here to help you. But you have to let me, ok?"

"H-help me?" Renton couldn't believe his ears. This girl wanted to help him? Well, could she do that by getting him out of here? Then he might believe it. No one had offered him the slightest bit of sympathy since he was taken. It wasn't like he'd even done anything to them, they simply wanted his machine for themselves, he was only still alive because he was the only one who could use it. Why would one of them try to help him now? It had to be a trick.

Yet Artemis still made no move to harm him. Reaching his side, she gave him a good look over, causing both of them to blush quite impressively as she set her bag down, before opening it up and pulling out a sheet, spreading it flat on the floor. Noticing his less than trusting stares, Artemis set to work, making a point to putting everything she pulled out of the bag in plain view. A small grin crossed her face as it got the desired effect, pulling out a large bottle of water, a First Aid kit, a few cloths and a thick blanket.

"The Great One has made sure that your wounds have been checked while you were sleeping." Artemis informed him as she uncapped the bottle and wet a cloth, never taking her eyes off the boy. "That's how you've remained more or less alright up until now and that's how I've managed to get in here. I however, am obviously offering a lot more than disinfectant sprays. I could and probably will get into a lot of trouble for this, so it would make this a lot more worth it if you'll let me help you."

Staring hard at everything before him, Renton hesitated only for a few more moments before conceding. He knew that this was probably too good to be true, but he doubted that this girl could hurt him much worse than her friends had and if she wanted to, she wouldn't wait or ask permission. Even when he first arrived, he was no match for someone like the people residing in this hellhole and they both knew it.

Getting a nod, Artemis offered him a small smile before reaching out for him. Getting him to turn, she quickly proceeded to wash the dirt and dried blood from his back and was very happy to notice that the cuts weren't all that big or deep at all. The bruises were another story, but the cuts were mostly an issue due to their placement. Even the blood would have needed a fair bit of time to release this much down his body and it still clotted just fine. Opening the First Aid kit, she made quick work of sterilising the open wounds before covering them with gauze and moving on to gently rub pain relief cream into all the bruises covering his back and shoulders. Renton flinched and jerked away from all that at first, but it wasn't long before the pain gave way to pleasurable relief, bringing a soft sigh from him and left Artemis chuckling as her leaned back into it so far that she had to push him back up.

Moving on to the rest of him however, was bit more of a challenge. Renton still had some tattered remains of his modesty and a surprising amount of stubbornness, so convincing him to uncurl his body and lay down in the sheet was a huge challenge. However, stubbornness was something Artemis could outclass just about anyone in. So in the end, Artemis agreed to close her eyes as she helped him lay down and didn't open them until a small towel was safely placed over his groin before starting on his chest and legs.

Besides that argument, the two remained mostly silent as she worked, Renton forever growing more relaxed and Artemis retaining her relief at the condition of his body, happy to note that the blood and dirt had made it look far worse than it was everywhere. Finishing up, she made sure all of the bandages would stay in place before setting all the equipment back into the kit and grabbing the blanket.

"Thank you." True gratitude passed through Renton's lips, surprising even himself as the thick, soft wool was draped over his body. Carefully moving himself, careful not to undo any or Artemis' work or reveal himself again, he cocooned himself in the fabric and leaned against the wall once again.

"You're welcome." Nodding her head, Artemis grabbed the sheet and draped it over him too before taking a seat beside him. Grabbing her bag again, she pulled out a lunch box and a thermos, opening both. "Here, this will warm you up a bit quicker." She stated, pouring some hot chocolate into a cup and bringing it to his lips for him to greedily drink down. Warmth immediately spread down to his belly and left him shocking himself again as he sighed with contentment for the first time since this whole mess started.

They sat that way for some time. Artemis basically handfed him, seeing as his hands were currently happily trapped, but other than that, they simply sat there. Artemis asked him no questions beyond those of his physical condition, she simply stayed beside him, offering him silent companionship and a shoulder to lean against, something that was bliss to the socially starved teen. It wasn't until he grew drowsy again that she rose to her feet.

"Will I see you again?" The words left his lips before he could stop himself as he watched her rise and head to the door, pouting a little. He knew that she'd risked a lot doing all this for him, she'd made that clear, and he felt bad about asking the one person he'd seen being kind to put herself in harm's way for him, but he couldn't help it. He'd been through hell and she was the soul speck of light he could find. He wanted to latch on to it so desperately. He was certain that he was never going to leave this place and if that was the case then he needed to have _something_ to make all this at least slightly tolerable.

Stopping right before the door, Artemis looked back over her shoulder, a sad grin gracing her face. "I'll try to come back, but I don't know. I can only promise to try."

Nodding sadly, he whispered a goodbye and watched as she left, staring sadly out his door for a good two minutes after she was gone before closing his eyes. He doubted he'd see her ever again. after all, the blanket alone would alert these thugs that she'd done things she shouldn't have. He just had to enjoy and appreciate all that she'd given him while it lasted. So, he did just that and snuggled into his blanket, falling into the best sleep he'd had in a good while.

...

Artemis on the other hand, was on high alert. Moving slowly, trying to keep every step silent in the echoing, stone halls and hugging the walls, she headed back toward her own quarters. It was her only chance of prolonging any punishment that she would be getting, any hope of getting her plausible deniability. It was all she could do now.

' _Helping him was probably nothing but a big mistake.'_ She scowled as she turned a corner, coming to an immediate halt as her ears picked up the light steps of her 'brethren'. She knew it was true, nothing good was likely to come from it, but she couldn't help herself. She had to do something, if only for a day.

She'd been there when they'd brought him in. It wasn't exactly a subtle arrival, they were dragging a freaking robot the size of a city building up the mountain and it wasn't like she ever got sent out on missions! So yes, of course she'd seen the boy too. He didn't look any way impressive, in fact he looked meek, completely untrained. Artemis couldn't figure out for the life of her why the Shadows was even bothering to bring him until she'd overheard conversations between the upper level assassins. The boy was the pilot of the robot, which she'd deduced herself, but what stunned her was that he was the only person who could pilot it. Even Ra's' best technicians could barely turn it on and none of them could get it too so much move its pinky. The machine seemed to have some sort of identification system in place for its pilot, but it was so advanced that no one could even figure out what it was. They couldn't hack any of the programs in that thing. The boy was their only hope of getting control of it, the Nirvash, and they desperately wanted it. It was a game changer on its own, but what it represented was a possibility that could make many desires the Shadows had into a reality.

But the boy had given nothing and been brutally interrogated. Artemis had been nearby every time, hiding so well even the Master's most trusted warriors hadn't noticed her, and had listened. Her heart went out to the guy, he didn't deserve any of this. But unless his life was put in jeopardy, she couldn't act. It would do him no good at all in the end and would only get her killed. Still, she only grew to hate herself more and more as this went on. Her guilt only got worse when the boy finally did crack and spilled his guts. She'd hoped that they'd stop and heal him, but it just went on. Ubu didn't believe him, was sure the kid was lying. Artemis believed him completely.

She should have stuck to the shadows, she knew that, but one look at him after his last interrogation and she just couldn't stay back anymore. He was in so much pain, so miserable and so innocent. Though the wounds were shallow, little of his skin had been free of blood and bruises and she wouldn't have been surprised if he had a few broken bones. So she set to work, gathering everything that she'd need to help him and waited for the next opportunity to get close. It took a few days, but when a meal was prepared for the boy in her free time, she jumped at the chance and volunteered to deliver it immediately.

And now she'd done something very noticeable. It would only take one visit for the Shadows to discover her work. Even if Renton wanted too and could predict the next visit, there was no place to hide anything in his prison and the evidence would lead back to her. Then all her work would be reversed and she would be on the ground in agony too. The League of Shadows was very strict and merciless when it came to its rules.

' _Still, nothing can be done about it now.'_ She sighed mentally as she reached the stairs. There was nothing she could do about it now. She could only hope for the best, both for her and for Renton.

Unfortunately, hope apparently wasn't meant for her, for she had barely made it out to the surface level before someone grabbed her by the hair.

"ARGH!" Slammed into a wall, Artemis couldn't even finish screaming before large hands moved down to restrain her arms and a huge body pressed hard against her back, forcing her harder against the rough stone.

"How dare you, you little brat!" A deep voice growled in her ears as he shoved harder, causing Artemis to clench her teeth, desperate not to let out another sound. She would be seen as weak. She'd taken worse.

"What are you-"

"Don't act innocent!" The man snapped, actually making her scream again as he squeezed her wrists. They'd snap if he squeezed any harder. "You think we don't know what you did? You think we haven't seen you comforting him? Undoing my work?"

"Your way was useless!" Ice had surged through every drop of blood as he'd gone on, but she refused to let it show. If she did, she was history. Fortunately, snapping at people and giving attitude was a specialty of hers. "If you were going to get anything from him, you'd already have it! He's been here for two weeks and already cracked a while back. You haven't got anything knew since the fourth day!"

"And you think that gives you the right to go against orders?" He snarled, throwing her to the ground. Grunting, she rolled onto her back and stared up at her attacker defiantly. Which would be impressive even if the man was giving you death glares. Bald, big, ridiculously muscular and bearing a face that always looks menacing, Ubu was nothing short of terrifying on a good day. When he's genuinely looking like an angry bear right at you, most people would be screaming bloody murder before the real thing even started. "He was my assignment! I was charged with getting the information out of him and I will do it my way, the League's way! You have interfered and defied orders! You may very well have-"

"Thought up a brilliant move." Ubu froze at that, just inches from ploughing a fist into the girl as the soft, calm voice met their ears. Standing back up straight, Ubu stared at the newcomer in sheer disbelief, but said nothing.

' _Well, that could only mean one thing.'_ Almost snorting to herself, Artemis forced herself up to kneel respectfully to the man walking down the hall. For once she was actually happy to do it. This actually sounded like a turn of events that she'd never thought possible. "Good evening Great One."

"Good evening child." Ra's Al Ghul nodded, motioning her to rise before turning back to Ubu. "I'm afraid that I have to agree with our young student on this matter, Ubu. As you would recall, even I have informed you that your interrogations had gone much too far. You have forgotten that this is not a corrupt or malicious man, but a timid child who has done no actual wrongs. That is why I had you cease your actions days ago. You would certainly have gotten the information he could give by now anyway."

"Yes master. Forgive me." Ubu moaned, dropping his head in shame as he kneeled, not moving an inch until Ra's nodded.

"I am willing to overlook it, Ubu. I should have paid more attention to your actions myself. Just do not get carried away again."

"Yes master." Ubu muttered, though not looking much less guilty as he rose to his feet.

"Now, let us move on." Artemis had to fight the urge to tense as both men turned back to her once more. She had to be ready for whatever Ra's asked of her. The proper response could bring hope to both teens, while the wrong ones could lead to pain. She had to respond right. "I have heard what the boy professed to Ubu. I believe that he does not know how to grant others control of the Nirvash. So, it is clear that we will need him to help us with our objective. Am I correct in believing that you arrived at this same conclusion, child?"

"Yes, Master." Artemis nodded immediately, smirking on the inside. This was perfect. Why didn't she think of bringing this up with Ra's before now? She should have spent more time thinking this through, she could have avoided all the fear and confrontations right from the start. "I knew that we would most likely need him, but his...treatment would make it very unlikely that he would ever help us. So, I thought that if I came in and helped him, became a friendly face he could latch on to..."

"Then you can encourage him into helping us without knowing it." Ra's finished for her with an approving smile. "And of course, get more information for us about his world and how to acquire these machines once we get there. The slightest bit of kindness after such harsh experiences is sure to make the boy latch onto you with a death grip."

"And do whatever it takes to keep me there." Artemis nodded with a devious smirk. "I apologise for not bringing this up with you previously, Great One. That was wrong of me, I admit to that, but I saw an opportunity and took it. I was coming to inform you now, of course."

"It is fine, I can appreciate your resourcefulness. Next time however, do try to relay a message to me with another." Ra's smiled, getting a nod from the young blond in return. "Now, how well has he responded to you and what physical state is he in now?"

"He was understandably suspicious and embarrassed at my presence at first, as was expected. Mistreatment and nudity tends to do that." Artemis responded, sending a sideways glare at an irritated Ubu in the process. "However, by the time I left, he asked if he would see me again. He wasn't happy that I was leaving."

"Good. You've made a good impression." Ra's grinned approvingly. "Now, go finish today's training and prepare for your next visit to the boy tomorrow. I want you to gain his absolute trust and report to me after every visit. I wish to be well informed of your progress and anything he tells you."

"Of course, Great One. Thank you for allowing me to continue." Bowing her head in one last sign of respect, Artemis continued calmly on her way down the hall. It wasn't until she reached her quarters that she let any trace of the relief she felt show.

However, once she flopped down on her bed, the loudest sigh of relief she'd ever made escaped her lips, a small, stunned smile following right behind it as she stared at the ceiling. She couldn't believe it. She'd escaped retribution. Not only that, she now had permission to see Renton daily. She could help and comfort him and he could be the breath of fresh air she needed from the murderers she was forever surrounded by. It was still going to be tricky, but this was much better than all alternatives. This she could work with. She could do some genuine good for once.

"Who knows?" She mused, a small snort making it through her throat. "Maybe I can even save him."

She really doubted that would ever happen, and it would doom herself, but the thought did bring a little hope it. It was good to be optimistic once in a while.

...

"Forgive me for asking, but are you sure you believe her, Master?" Ubu asked as the teen left their sight and hearing range, glaring down the hallway. "Artemis has never shown the level of loyalty and passion for our ways that is required of us. I can't help but be suspicious."

"I understand the feeling, my friend." Ra's nodded, turning his attention to the stars appearing in the sky. He was no fool after all. Ra's knew full well that Artemis never came to him by choice. She was brought here by her father and though she never complained and had resigned herself to her fate, she was never happy about it. Even now, she had never been sent on many missions, for she lacked the will of an assassin.

He was also very aware that her actions were not as spontaneous as she'd suggested. He had left Renton to Ubu at first, but once he had learned of just how far Ubu had taken it, he had not only moved to stop his most loyal warrior, but had intended to have the boy well and truly taken care of himself, and would have. However, right before he was going to give the order, he had noticed Artemis' behaviour and opted to let her take care of it. He saw no harm in letting her make her move for him. He'd simply watch and respond accordingly.

"I'm not entirely certain of her motives myself." He admitted after a moment, turning back to Ubu. "We will simply have to wait for them to reveal themselves. However, whether or not her intentions are entirely for our benefit, her actions will be. If her loyalty is brought to question, we will simply manipulate her the way we intend to have her manipulate the boy. Either way, in the end, this will all be to our benefit, of that I can assure you."

Artemis would play into his hand, one way or the other. Ra's Al Ghul was sure of it. After all, he'd spent hundreds of years manipulating entire organisations from behind the shadows. Controlling two teenagers would be child's play.

...

Both Renton and Artemis found their lives vastly improving after that. Weeks passed and Artemis visited every day, each time bringing anything she could think of that Renton could need, from food to clothes to a toothbrush. After the first week, she even managed to get Ra's to have him moved to a more suitable room above ground, this time with a window, proper bathroom and a bed.

Naturally, they didn't say much for the first few days. Renton was eternally grateful for all Artemis had done for him and cherished her company, but that didn't mean that he entirely trusted her. Artemis on the other hand, wasn't sure what to say, outside the standard questions on his health and feelings over his new conditions. She wanted to say more, but she knew that they'd be watched and she wanted the boy to trust her, so for now, she kept her mouth shut for the most part and waited for Renton to open up a bit more.

It was starting to become frustrating for the feisty blond if she was honest, not that she blamed the boy. It was just that patience wasn't her strongest virtue and, while he understood the delicacy of the situation and never threatened her, Ra's did encourage her to put more effort into her mission with every debriefing she gave him. Her own desire for a genuinely friendly companion and the pressure the Shadows were placing on her to get what they wanted from him was making the slow progress push heavily on her temper.

Which was why she was taking a good few deep breaths as she headed to their captive, trying to calm herself down. In her hands this time was a tray with a generous amount of food and a jug of fresh coffee, as usual now, and a couple of books, one a novel Artemis enjoyed and the other detailing a great deal about machinery. The fact that he was mechanically inclined was one of the few details she'd managed to acquire about his life, so she thought that it might interest him to learn about her world's machinery, if only to laugh at how primitive they were if that giant robot represented the technological norm of his world. She figured that he could really use some entertainment when she wasn't around and had kicked herself for not thinking of it before now.

"Hey Renton, I've got your lunch." Balancing it all on one hand, she pulled out the key and opened the door only to stop for second at the sight of him. He definitely looked a lot better than he had when they'd first met now. The wounds she'd taken care of daily before were mostly gone, leaving only a few small cuts hidden under light bandaging and tender skin. What's more, his skin had regained its healthy colour, a bonus of being moved to a place with plenty of sunlight, and his body had regained what weight he would have lost during his time under Ubu's care with insufficient food. But what really drew her attention was the stubborn look on his face. As he floundered trying to do some push-ups.

"Ele-whaa!" She couldn't help but snort as his hand slipped and sent him splatting on the ground. His face was red and pouting like a child who just got told that he couldn't have another cookie.

"Eleven? That's it?" Chuckling lightly as she closed the door, she gave the embarrassed boy a small smile, setting the tray down before him. "You need to work out more dude."

"Yeah. I know" The words were almost too soft for her to catch as he sat up, staring pointedly at his food, trying to hide his burning face. "I never was any good in gym."

"Well, we'll have to whip you into shape, won't we?" Artemis grinned in response, showing off her own muscles a little. "Can't have you outclassed by a girl, after all. Not that you'll ever outdo me."

"You never know. I've got plenty of time to work on it." Renton replied, surprising her as he offered her a shy grin before digging into his food. There was nothing strained or weary about it, it was completely honest and innocent. Relaxed.

Emboldened by the response, Artemis made a dramatic display of poking him in the head. "Cocky huh? Well, we'll see how spunky you are after I help train you up. By the time I'm done, you'll be passed out."

"Can I still eat first?" Artemis only grew happier every time he responded to her. It was more than he'd ever talked before and much more casually done. Not only that, but while his voice was casual, there was flickers of both hopefulness and stubbornness in his eyes. He genuinely wanted to train with her. Of course, that was a natural reaction to where he was, he'd been hurt and defenceless and never wanted to feel that way again, but he also trusted her enough to let her help him. This was nothing like even the day before, but she wasn't going to question it.

"Sure, you can. Then we'll relax while the food settles. Then we'll start a light workout, see what you're used to already and work from there. Sound good?"

"Yeah." Renton nodded. "Sounds great."

...

By the present day, their relationship had only grown stronger. Renton was forever exhausted from the training exercises, Artemis could be a tough trainer, but he always felt good about himself after it. After a month of ever increasing regimens, he was actually proud of his body. He was still small and slim, but his muscles were all noticeably defined. Artemis even taught him some basic katas. Between perfecting them, the books and even the ipod she'd let him borrow, Renton never found himself bored all that much. Yes, he was still a prisoner and was desperate to get back home, but he was far happier than he'd ever thought possible as a captive.

He and Artemis had really started having good, long conversations too. It started simple enough, but before long, they were really opening up to each other. Artemis had admitted to missing her mother, an ex con who'd be out of jail by now, and told him about her assassin sister and despicable father, even going as far as to rant loudly about how he was responsible for her being just as stuck here as he was. He'd responded in kind, telling her how his father seemingly dropped out of his life, how his sister disappeared when he was young and that his mother was dead before telling her about his life with a band of rebels and wanted military deserters.

And of course, as they talked, things about their worlds slipped out. Artemis had mentioned that the Shadows believed that they worked for the betterment of mankind with an 'ends justify the means' philosophy and how she felt that nothing good could come of shaping the world in their image, while he'd made passing comments on his own world's corrupt Government and the battles he'd found himself in, something that intrigued the female warrior immensely, though he'd noticed that she asked little about the robots and other high tech weapons used and more about the how and why, usually looking very impressed at him.

It wasn't until he'd been there for two months after he'd arrived that conversations turned real serious. He knew something was wrong right away. Artemis came in with her usual greeting, but she was scowling hard at the window, her whole body tense.

"Hey Artemis, what's wrong?" Putting his book aside, he rose to his feet and gratefully took today's dinner, but he never took his eyes off of her. He'd seen her irritated before, even angry, she did have a temper, but this seemed different. She was rattled, not stewing over some passed event or lousy family member.

For a moment, Artemis said nothing, simply flopping onto his bed, trying to collect herself. Then, after taking a good few deep breaths, she sat herself back up and stared at him intensely right in the eyes. "Since you first got here, Ra's Al Ghul has had every tech head that works for him and every world renowned mechanical and programming expert he could kidnap working to try and figure out how to get into the Nirvash's systems, trying to figure out what makes it tick and operate. Every single one of them has failed."

"But that's a good thing." Renton frowned, staring up at her from his place on the floor confusedly. "If they can't get into it, then they can't use it. Unless..." All that colour he'd regained disappeared in an instant as a very horrifying possibility struck him. "Don't tell me they're going to reverse engineer it!"

"No, they won't. The Master won't allow it." Artemis shook her head, instantly bringing a very big sigh of relief from the captive. "They can't afford to. They need it functional for their plan to work."

"What plan? Why do they even want it so bad?" Renton cried incredulously. He really didn't understand it. Yes, the Nirvash was an absolutely amazing machine, even in his world, but it was hardly the ultimate weapon. He'd read about plenty of technology in the books Artemis gave him. There were plenty of better targets for different types of circumstances and advantages. Capsule Corp was the perfect target, not a temperamental robot.

"Weapons of enormous size and power that can be programmed to only work for set pilots and are virtually unhackable doesn't sound appealing to you?" Artemis snorted, raising an unimpressed eyebrow. Well, when you put it that way... "There's more though. Like the metal that it and its weapons are made of. It moves with the flexibility of an organic being, yet the armour puts even the most protected military weapon's to shame five or six times over. There's a team of heroes in this world called the Z Fighters, consisting of ridiculously powerful heroes, the strongest in the world. They're the reason that a number of plans had to be aborted before they began, we simply couldn't compete with them. However, testing of your toy has them confident that it could withstand even their powers. The Nirvash alone is a game changer. Now, what would happen if they could get multiple copies of it, or similar, less choosy models? What could happen if they could just get their hands on the metal that thing is made of in large proportions?"

"A giant military advantage." His eyes wide, Renton stared at her unseeingly as that all went through his head. It was true that plenty of Earth tech could defeat the robotic titans, but if you didn't know what was coming, if you didn't know what you were fighting, and if it could take greater impacts than any opposing weapon ever could, then yes, it was perfect for hit and run, something assassins thrive in. And if you could get a lot of that metal and forge weapons for extremely well trained assassins...there was no tell, how bad that could get. "But to get all that, they'd need..."

It was at that moment that he completely lost his voice, along with his heartbeat for a moment, as the realisation struck. The only way to get the metal, let alone fully functional units without disassembling the Nirvash was... "They have a way back to my home?"

"Yes." Artemis nodded, distracting herself with a few loose strands of hair for a moment before pushing on. "When they found you, you'd just left a portal within a cave at the foot of this mountain. Anomalies like that had been rumoured to be showing up and disappearing frequently from up to two or three months before then, usually spitting something or someone out or taking them away, never to be seen again, so they have been deemed a possibly very dangerous curiosity by those who see or believe they were ever there. So, when one was discovered just below our doorstep, the Master was keen to observe it. It wasn't going to last long though, they knew that from both the rumours and the look of the black hole apparently, so, through some contact that I don't know, technology was set up to try and stabilise it, maintain it. And it has worked, even now it's still open. However," She added, raising a hand before the excited dimension hopper could say anything. "The portal tech used was initially designed to maintain a portal to the ghost zone, a dimension made of ectoplasm, not worlds associated with the string theory. It's unstable and risky. Naturally, they want to better stabilise it before they try using it, but we don't know what it's like to pass through a comparably safe portal. They want to use the Nirvash as a transport ship through. Then they'll need someone to guide them to and teach them how to pilot the robots they intend to steal. That's where you come in."

' _Crap!'_ That's the only response on Renton's mind as all that sunk in. On one hand, the optimistic part of his brain was telling him that he could work with this. After all, if he pretended to go along with it, then they would allow him access to the Nirvash and show him the way to the portal, where he could then destroy whatever was stabilising it and jump through. However, common sense reminded him quickly that he'd have passengers from the start and if they didn't kill him on one side of the portal or the other, jumping through a portal that could collapse at any second would. After all, if it closed before he made it all the way back to his world, who knew what could happen to him?

"So, what does that mean for me?" He could barely get the words out. Artemis had to lean in to hear them. He wasn't sure that he wanted the answer, he was shaking in terror already. That first couple of weeks, that still felt like months to him, had been absolute hell. He couldn't deal with that again. He'd finally stopped having nightmares about it, he couldn't return to it now! But he couldn't help these people either. The last thing this world, Artemis' world needed was a gathering of international assassins wielding such strong weaponry. Besides, even if they got to his world successfully, he doubted he even could help them. They'd need to know how to pilot the fighters before they ever tried to steal one from a military compound and that risked those on the Gekko if Eureka and his friends managed to find him. No, none of that was an option.

"It means that I'm being pressured to complete my mission to persuade to 'our side'." That snippy response actually left him stunned. Was all this really... "That's how I managed to set this up. Make them think I was playing the helping hand saving you from the evil Ubu and befriending you so that I could encourage you to help the Shadows. And get what information I could out of you along the way. Don't worry." She added, a reassuring smile splitting her face as Renton continued to stare at her in shock and the beginnings of betrayal. "If that was my real play, I wouldn't be telling you all this. I've told the Master enough for our time together to continue, but he is the one I'm playing. Everything I've done for you is genuine."

Stunned as he was, after a few moments of pondering, he gave her a small nod, accepting her claims. When he stopped to think about it, a lot of evidence did back her claims. Like when she avoided asking for details about technology or others, besides teasing him about Eureka anyway. She never dug for any information about his world or Nirvash, just that on him specifically. He trusted her.

"So, if that's the case, what are we going to do about all this?" Lowering his voice for fear of an observer, Renton left his food behind as he joined Artemis on the bed, staring right at her intently. If she was going to keep up this ruse, then he had to consciously help now. Otherwise, it was her life on the line, not his and even if his trust was shaken a little, he cared too much about her to risk that.

"Look for a way to get you out. Hope an opportunity arrives." Artemis responded, looking back just as intensely. "I've heard rumours of the contact helping with the portal demanding something in return from both your world and ours and progress is going too slow. The Master is preparing missions to help give us more time on the main project, among other things. I'm going to snoop, try to find some opening we can exploit. Meanwhile, you'll need to give me more information on your world. Just what might be interesting or useful if we managed to get over there, like security procedures or a trick your robot can do. Anything that makes it look like you trust me completely and that I'm doing my job."

"I can do that." That was easy. Artemis was right after all. Any information about his world was great if you got there, but useless until you did. That was an advantage, the Shadows would be happy to prepare for a world that he'd never take them too. And then there was one thing about the Nirvash that he could tell them right now. "Then I'll start now by saying the Nirvash can transform."

...

Ra's Al Ghul always did love watching his people train. Though there were a great many of them, he had followed every single one of them through every step of their training since the day they joined and was forever proud of how far most of them came. It filled him with great joy to see them learn and shine and every member to join and succeed in all areas of training meant he could do even more for the world, to purge it of evil and corruption. They were his means and the source of his hope for the world as he imagined it. A better world, perhaps one day even reaching the stage where his League would no longer be needed. Even he would be long gone by that point, but he was determined to make it a reality. Watching his followers grow stronger, become all they could be, both filled him with pride and assured him that it would one day come to pass. Especially if his plans in motion succeeded. That would cut the time needed to make his paradise dramatically.

Still though, even watching his pride and joy, even revelling in the possibilities before him, that thought still brought a small scowl to his irritated face. To continue his efforts, to obtain the knowledge, material and titans that would give him so much, he had had to make a deal that he normally would have avoided like the plague. Not once in his life did he ever believe for a moment that he would make a partnership with Vlad Plasmius. Even before he was discovered to be a ghost hybrid, he had wanted nothing to do with the man. Though he played the part of a pleasant aristocrat, he was a ridiculously greedy, egocentric man, willing to crush and destroy any opposition to his goals. While the same willingness could be said for Ra's, the ageless assassin master always strived for what he saw as mankind's benefit, not his own, and the idea of Vlad's nature disgusted him. In fact, more than once he'd almost seen the need to eliminate the millionaire. Finding out that he was an evil ghost willing to threaten the world with destruction or his rule only guaranteed his targeting by the Shadows.

However, as despicable as that man was, it couldn't be helped. Plasmius was the only person in the world with knowledge of dimensional portals that would ever willingly help him and the portal had been already threatening to disappear. If he wanted to take advantage of the opportunity, then he had to accept Vlad's proposition. He would provide the technology to maintain the portal and each partner would get half the spoils of what lied beyond offered. However, there was one more requirement of Ra's' Shadows to the deal. The assassination of Kim Possible.

Ra's himself was completely against it. Though not one his people and definitely someone who'd tended to get in the way of his plans, but she was worthy of joining his Shadows, fighting spectacularly for the betterment of others in her own way. Her death was only to the benefit of those who followed their greed and desire for dark conquest. Still, for the sake of his goals, he agreed, hoping to find a way around it until later. When he had what he wanted. He had a plan to eliminate Plasmius set for when he was no longer a threat to his plans, so he was hopeful that he could downplay the teen hero's status until then.

But of course, Plasmius was far from the patient type and was demanding results. It looked like he'd have to make a move on Miss Possible after all.

"Master." Drawn out of his ponderings, Ra's turned to find one of his assassins kneeling before him. Nodding his head, he remained silent as the man rose to his feet, waiting for his report. "We have found Kim Possible's current position. However..."

"Go on Takaishi. We do not hesitate here." Ra's stated with a slight tilt of his head.

"I apologise master. She is currently housed at Capsule Corp's head building." Well, that could be a problem. "It appears that her technical partner has been taken as an apprentice by Bulma Briefs."

"The wife of Vegeta." That was an interesting and possibly very troublesome development. Under the protection of the Z Fighters, every move made against her was likely to either fail or have great repercussions to his League. The ability to hold them and those like them at bay was the reason he wanted Nirvash and machines like it. He was not going to risk his people's annihilation over the murder of a young woman that he didn't even want dead. It didn't help that Renton was more needed for their plans than they'd ever thought or wanted either. Everything was growing more and more difficult, risky. His next move was going to take a lot of thought.

* * *

 **AN:** Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Unfortunately, that's the last one I've written for this story so far, but I have got a few chapters for VG8 ready to go and the first part of that story occurs around the same time this one does, so they'll start going up next week.


	5. Settling Minds and Mixing Designs

**Settling Minds and Mixing Designs**

It had been an interesting way to reveal the past, Jazz had to admit that. Bulma definitely had her fun with that mental whammy. Still though, the budding psychologist in her was a little annoyed with the big reveal. She felt that it probably should have been handled a lot more gently. After all, it wasn't every day someone told you the hugest, most dramatic events of your life changed an entire world, lasted for about a year and you don't even remember any of it. Particularly in cases such as Kim, where the mention and evidence of such events brings back tidal waves of memory. By the time the others had all gotten over the shock, she still looked completely overwhelmed.

That was expected of course. Kim actually was a Guardian, she was far more involved and connected with everything and everyone she'd forgotten than even Bulma had been. Jazz had got off relatively easy that night in Hong Kong, when Gohan, a talking duck named Huey and Jake came to talk to her family. Not being too deep into it all before, she simply got a few resurfacing memories of the world in general, news reports, names and faces she'd forgotten visiting Danny and a few nightmares involving the black monsters her mind called the Heartless for the most part. Some feelings resurfaced with them too, as well as some thoughts she'd pondered over the group throughout its time, but it was basically just enough for her to believe it and be comfortable with it. Henry appeared to be in the same situation now that she'd found herself in weeks before, accepting it and mulling over his own personal thoughts about it. Felix was easily the least affected and basically just remembered a few names and comments, a result of the fact that he wasn't a part of the hero world and therefore had little association with the Guardians at all during their time, mostly getting all he knew from the TV and conversations with Kim and Ron, and Monique and Zita appeared to be in more or less the same situation when they were later informed, Monique remembering a little more and Zita remembering even less. Ron was easily the most vocally blown away, but even he seemed to have the same level of recollection as Henry, maybe a little more thanks to Kim's longer and more in-depth connection as a Guardian than Ryo's. Wade was hit with a memory surge apparently comparable to Bulma's by the end of it, but rather than being overwhelmed, he took it in stride and even got excited as knowledge of magic, scenarios and amazing technology, both alien and human, he'd once gathered returned to him. He prioritised what he needed like the genius that he was and immediately moved on to find out what Bulma had planned on her joint hero support project, drawing a curious Henry in along the way. But as for Kim, after look through a few of Bulma's files, she went to find the room she was sharing with the girls with a bottle of water and a packet of aspirin. She was done for the day.

' _Information overload.'_ Jazz sighed with a shake of her head before letting the subject die. There was nothing she could do about it now except let Kim rest and sort her head out. Which she was fine with. After all, Jazz had her own headache inducing data to deal with.

Seeing as nothing else was really planned for today after that little introduction meeting, Jazz was quite content to sit down comfortably at the desk she'd basically claimed as her own in the computer bay portion of Bulma's lab and work on one of her own projects. Or rather, modify one of her parents' old ones.

Blueprints and notebooks filled with both neat, factual and terribly messy, crude writing covered the entire desk the computers didn't touch while the computer screen showed a 3D model of a very unusual looking metal suit. Jazz's eyes were forever glancing over all of it back and forth as she typed, only growing more frustrated as she went on. The data was ridiculously complicated even without her father's lack of proper spelling, grammatical structure and actual words running wild all through it, often interrupted by 'take that ghosts'! Though she wasn't ever really mechanically inclined or bearing the level of knowledge of ectoplasm that her parents did, she'd gotten a lot better in recent times at both developing and constructing a lot of their inventions, but this one...it was something of a different world! And it was driving her crazy that her sometimes silly and childish parents had actually succeeded in developing something so complex that she could barely grasp any understanding of its data, let alone how it worked. She absolutely hated being wrong or stumped!

"AUUHH! Since when are my parents this good?" Groaning as she found herself lost and confused for the twentieth time, she threw her head into her hands and rubbed her temples, trying to relieve the stress induced headache starting to form. Then she closed her eyes too as she realised that the bane of existence was still staring her in the face. Maybe she should take a break.

"Something troubling you?" Unprepared, Jazz nearly jumped right out of her seat at the amused voice, but settled for just whipping up her stunned face to find Wade by the door, watching her amusedly. In addition to that, she caught Henry in her peripheral vision, giving her a raised eyebrow from the mechanic bay and blushed, sending him an apologetic look. She hadn't even noticed he'd been working over there, her being so wrapped up in her work and him being ridiculously quiet for someone working with machines.

"Can I see it? Maybe I can help."

"Um, yeah." She mumbled, only feeling more embarrassed by the second. She didn't like it when she needed help with anything academic. Though, that been said, when she did, she was quick to get or accept it. Not even her pride was allowed to interfere with her learning. So, she forced a grateful smile on her face as Wade beamed at her, making his way beside her. "Though be warned, even geniuses are baffled by anything my Dad's written."

"So it's a family project?" Intrigued, Wade immediately picked up the blueprints and looked over every detail and note. Jazz couldn't help the genuine grin that grew on her face as she watched him, he looked like a kid in a candy store. "The Fenton Ecto-suit? Looks interesting."

"It should." Jazz nodded, turning very serious. "It's easily the most advanced and powerful thing my parents ever made. And by far the most dangerous, even to the person using it."

"What?" Wade cried, baffled, though never taking his eyes off the paper. "How is it...oh, my GOD!"

BANG!

Both Wade and Jazz flinched as something heavy crashed into metal at his cry before looking up to find one of Henry's projects in pieces on his work bench.

"Wade!" The boy in question shrugged and offered a sheepish apology as the startled Henry turned exasperated and worried eyes back and forth between them and his tech. His hands were already flying all over the place and his eyes were glowing, quickly assessing the damage before sighing in relief a moment later. Letting his power fade from his eyes, the boy shook his head before apparently deciding to give up and set his stuff aside before heading towards them.

"When I'm working please keep it down." He asked, though it brought relief to the nervous African American that, while firm, there was no actual anger behind his words. "All forms of telepathic abilities require focus and if I'm doing something delicate I could easily cross wires and cause explosions if I'm distracted. Or just ruin the whole thing."

"Or send a car careening at you." Jazz added lightly, chuckling a little at Wade's surprise. "I saw it the first day we were here. Vegeta's so arrogant and rude that he actually taunted Henry into doing it."

"And he just punched it to a stop." Henry sighed exasperatedly. "Good thing Bulma took care of paying the owner back. I don't have that kind of money."

"So anger sets your power off?" Wade asked, raising a curious eyebrow.

"Any form of mental stimulation can set my power off." Henry replied, pulling a seat over for himself before Jazz's table. "That's the reason I work so hard for to maintain my mental discipline. If I let loose, all the tech around me goes wild and the results are completely unpredictable. But we can talk about me later. What has you two going crazy?" He asked, staring over everything, waiting only long enough for Jazz to nod her consent before picking up some files and checking out the screen.

"This suit! Its design is beyond anything I've ever seen!" Wade cried, immediately throwing the blueprints into the others' faces. "If this thing could actually be made-"

"It was once made." Jazz cut it off, leaving Wade gaping in a strange mix of shock, wonder and sheer disbelief. "My parents were working on it and completed it during the invasion of Pariah Dark. It's the only reason my brother was able to defeat him."

"Danny Phantom used this?" Henry cried, staring in wide eyed amazement. "No wonder he won then! If this thing was built and someone as strong as Phantom operated it, they'd make Vegeta look like a joke!"

"You have no idea." Jazz drawled, pushing the paper out of her breathing space. "Speaking from personal experience, the suit works by taking the pilot's abilities, such as strength and speed, and amplifying them a hundred fold. It can also shoot ectoplasmic blasts from its hands. However, if someone with ghost powers uses it, you find that the design was accidentally compatible with their powers and amplifies all of them too! Back when he first used it, Danny couldn't create a single clone, but with this thing, he made three with ease and the energy blasts he released were apparently enormous, not that I got to see it."

"I can't believe something like this exists!" Wade exclaimed, finally taking a seat beside them as he turned his eyes on to the notebooks. "A suit designed to channel the power of the human body and amplify it? Technology connecting so intimately with living biology? That's beyond amazing!"

"It's beyond dangerous!" Jazz retorted, a little harsher than she'd intended, bringing Wade right off his cloud. "The suit basically uses the pilot as one of its batteries. Even only using the incomplete, lower half of the suit for a minute, my Dad almost died and exhausted for the rest of the day. Danny lasted a lot longer, but he's a ghost hybrid! That kind of body can handle the strain a lot longer, but even he almost died in the battle with the Ghost King."

"What about you?" Henry asked, frowning curiously as she turned to him. "You said you speak from experience. You've used it, right?"

"Yeah." Jazz nodded, biting her lip with a frown at the memory. "After the Ghost King fiasco, Plasmius stole it and worked to modify it so it wouldn't waste the user. In a long story that involved duping him, he forced me to fight Danny with it. We tricked him and had the suit blow up in his face, deeming it far too powerful and dangerous to exist."

"And yet you're making it again?" That seemed a bit weird to Henry and Wade seemed to agree, if he was reading the baffled look right. He had to agree, that suit was an ultimate weapon. It could turn anyone into an unstoppable warrior of death and destruction, assuming that they didn't die from it themselves. Why risk such a thing ever reaching the hands of an enemy, especially when they'd just learned just how many heroes and potential allies were actually in the world?

"No. Not exactly." Jazz replied with a shake of her head before pointing to the screen, redirecting both boys' attention. "I've been trying to determine just how it works so I can use the data to create a similar, but weaker suit. The ideal design will increase your natural, physical abilities tenfold, rather than a hundred. I'm also hoping to find a way to make it only draw on the user's strength when they need it to, instead of constantly, to ensure that it doesn't become life threatening. But of course, if that's the case, then the user will need to be able to move and run even when the suit's not activated, otherwise they become a sitting duck, so it'll need to be more like armour than sitting in a robot. I thought a DNA recognition system might be a good idea too, so the wrong people can't use it. But," She added, quickly growing exasperated again as she threw her hands up at all the paperwork. "I can't start even trying to design the new suit until I fully understand the old one and this stuff is well above me!"

"Well, maybe we can help." Wade grinned, looking up briefly before turning back to the notebook in his hands. "I built Kim's battle suit and plenty of other stuff before and Henry's a technopath. Between the three of us, we'll have it all worked out in no time, right?"

"It would be a lot easier if there was a prototype for me observe already built, but yeah." Henry nodded with a grin, grabbing another book only to give it an affronted look as he saw Jack's work. "Though this might slow it down. Still, we can get it done. I might even already have an answer to your power transference."

"Really?" Jazz's eyes lit right up at that, leaning closer with a smile.

Nodding his head, Henry pulled himself up and back over to his station for a moment before returning with what looked like part of a Gatling gun at first glance. That is, until he slipped it onto his wrist.

"This is one of my Gatling gauntlets. I made them myself" He explained proudly, raising it onto the bench right in front of his two, suddenly very nervous, new friends. Though seeing the looks, he quickly gave them a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, it doesn't have bullets or anything, you won't get hurt by it. In fact, without me it's completely powerless. You see, it's powered by my own techno-telepathic energy. The energy is gathered and shaped through it into the form of energy bullets, lasers or blades. I also created the metal arm Justiman uses. It works similarly, gathering and concentrating his unique type of energy to turn the power into an energy attack, like his Thunderclap or Voltage Blade techniques. I'm sure we can find a way to make my technology compatible with yours."

"I bet I can help with your plans already too." Wade added with a grin. "After all, Kim's battle suit has a repairing function, enhanced jumping tech, a forcefield, adds a slight increase to her punches, can transform the hand into a solid laser scooper and turn her invisible while still adding basically no bulk, weight or denying flexibility. I'm sure I could help minimize the amount of weight and restraining room the suit would need. And in return, maybe I could use some of your tech to upgrade Kim's suit?" He smiled, his voice turning questioningly at the end.

"Of course! That's what we're technically all here for, right?" Jazz chuckled as Wade beamed at her, Henry nodding beside her. "Trying to reform a hero network and use our combined talents and knowledge to help each and every one of them. I'm happy to provide tech to anyone who rejoins this little alliance."

"I couldn't agree more." Henry stated happily, though his face quickly warped into a scowl as he looked at the notes again. "Though, let's get through this mess and try to design one successful suit before we go nuts on everyone else's gear."

Quickly agreeing with a laugh at his irritation, the three of them got right down to it. Sparing a moment, Jazz sent both boys thankful smiles before diving right in along with them. And it wasn't long, much to her surprise, that they actually made real headway, each of them focusing on one feature and informing the others of the required details and making their own set of notes before moving on to the next. The method only got even better when Bulma came and found them a little later and joined right in. Right after almost giving all three of them heart attacks as she cheered for joy at the sight of the first collaboration already well underway of course.

...

It was well into the next morning, nearly afternoon, before Kim felt that her mind was settled enough to function again. She still felt like she'd been run over by a steam train though. Ever since the orientation, her brain had been doing constant cycles of the same events. She'd hear, see or think something that would trigger a number of memories, so many that her head would hurt or spin, that would bring up even more questions. So, when her head settled a little, she was compelled to go through Bulma's files or the data on her Vcom and begin the process all over again.

She was pretty sure she had all the necessary details now though, along with a few comic relief moments, and her headache was dulling, so that was a relief. Still, processing everything was a much bigger handful. The weight of the achievements the Guardians made when they were together was absolutely amazing and sadly, most of it was gone now, long forgotten. It was mindboggling just how much harmony they'd unintentionally caused and worked to maintain, only to be given up to revive a world consumed in darkness.

Then there was her teammates and friends. Each one, even those who were related, brought a completely new set of abilities, realms and powers into her life, more than she ever thought could possibly exist. Ghost powers, aliens and their tech, five different variations of magic, the details behind just them were overwhelming. Then the situations and enemies they'd faced, like the Fright Knight, alien invasions, going back in time! It was amazing that her brain hadn't exploded with all that knowledge suddenly pouring back into it.

Still, it did bring some clarity to more recent days. Why she frequently had unusual dreams of witches and yellowed eyed monsters or imposing figures in cloaks, why déjà vu moments kept occurring every time she saw or heard about something ghost related or when she'd run into a thief calling herself Katnappe. It even explained why Team Possible was so big now. She was used to working with a strong, decently sized team, she'd done it for about a year against ridiculously powerful enemies, and her mind was trying to recreate it. It also added more insight to why she started drawing her friends onto the team, even though they'd just won their greatest battle ever. She and Ron had needed help to do it, a part of her had remember the invasions that had taken all of the Guardians to stop and she had resorted to try and recreate the strength she'd grown accustomed to being supported by.

But she wasn't thinking of any of that right now. No, sitting on her bed, playing with her V com, the returning memories she was thinking about was the lost friends. Now that her memory was well on its way to fully restored, she was almost brought to tears over them. She suddenly missed them all. Some more than others, but all of them were special to her and she hadn't seen one of them in many months, hadn't even remembered the people who'd stood beside her, cared for her on and off the battlefield. Sure, she knew that that wasn't her fault in any sense of the word, but that didn't stop the guilt and sadness.

So there she was, fiddling with the V com and trying to work up the nerve to call one of them. She so wanted to call all of them, to catch up with them, to be reassured of their friendship and to be able to talk to someone who was just as blown away by all this as she was. But still, she couldn't shake the stupid, senseless doubt that they'd be angry with her. It was ridiculous, they'd all forgotten her and each other too, no one was going to feel betrayed or abandoned or anything, so what was the problem? She was only the fourth old member to actually reactivate the com system for crying out loud, there were four other members in this world alone that had yet to do that! Anyone she could reach would just be happy to have her back, like she was, right?

"So where's your damn problem?" Kim scowled at herself, kicking her foot against the bed. "Stop acting like some lovesick twit about to call a crush and activate the damn communicator that could put the Kimmunicator out of business!"

It took a few more minutes to work up the nerve, but in the end, she forced herself to do just that. Bringing up the contacts page, she briefly looked over the small list of possibilities before setting her eyes on the American Dragon. Danny was still beyond their world and he was currently beyond reach. She knew her V com could communicate with another in the dimensional pathways just like the others', so she guessed that he was currently resupplying in another dimension or something. Gohan would have made a good talk too, he was kind and forgiving to a fault, but Kim remembered having a better relationship with the dragon. Jake was laid back, fun loving and always excited to see a friend. It would do her nerves good to see the bright ball of energy smiling at her and from what she'd heard of his recent days, she was sure that he could use all the reassurance of friends that he could get.

He apparently still didn't waste any time answering calls either, for ten second barely passed before the calling screen was replaced by the face of a stunned, but very happy Asian American boy.

"Hey Kim! Man girl, it's great to see ya. Finally found a few missing titbits in that head of yours, huh?"

"More like had them jack hammered into my skull." Kim pouted, getting a laugh from Jake as she rubbed her head. "I came with Wade to meet Bulma. She offered him an apprentice position and she took great joy in smacking all of us in the face with every detail imaginable. My head only stopped reeling about ten minutes ago and this happened yesterday afternoon!"

"Oh wow, you did get it rough." Jake tried to sound sympathetic, he really did, but his amusement in all of this was radiating from him. Normally Kim would get snarky at him for laughing at her pain, but now that she was relaxing and looking at him properly, she could tell he could really use a good laugh. "Mickey told me after Danny's presence was already setting stuff off and even then, he only gave us the basics. Most of what I remember has come back slowly since then."

"Do you think you're caught up?" Kim asked, raising a curious eyebrow.

"Yeah. There are still a few blank, weird moments, but I could probably keep a conversation about anything you ask me going." Jake nodded before turning a little concerned. "So how are you dealing with it? Are you ok with it? Weirded out, overwhelmed? It's a lot to deal with in small amounts, I have no idea how you'd handle everything coming back at once."

"I am very overwhelmed! Vast depths of knowledge in things that most people called myths, battles with beings that make my toughest villains look like jokes, friends I forgot even existed, it's all crazy! And on top of that, I can't shake the guilt of forgetting you and the others in the first place! I mean, yeah, we'd only known each other for about a year and we hardly spent every minute together with everyone, but we were still all good friends, willing to do just about anything to keep each other safe and happy. How could I just forget about people who have done so much for me?"

"Yeah, it's a pretty crappy feeling, isn't it?" Jake nodded as Kim took a few deep breaths. It was the first time the frazzled girl had taken one since she started her rant. "Those feelings returning and comparing to the current ones is a bit of a minefield too. When I was getting my memories back, I had both a bit of jealousy and an inferiority complex to Danny going on. That was as painful as hell."

'I can imagine." Kim replied as she calmed herself. "So how did you deal with that?"

"Danny actually helped me discover a little trick to my magic and upped my game." Jake answered with a grin, raising his arm up to the screen. Kim's eyes widened, stunned, as his whole arm glowed reddish orange before it burst into flame, as it always did when he transformed. However, this time instead of making him dragonic, the fire simply danced over his flesh and sleeve without so much as singeing the fabric. "He taught me how to control the flames through my aura. I can't make projective fire attacks like this or use it in my dragon form, but I can make them as big as a bonfire around my body if I want. I'm learning to use it to propel myself and mixing it with my human talents too. It's making me pretty tough."

"I'll bet. That's amazing Jake." Kim said softly, staring in awe even as the flames receded. It was definitely impressive and very useful. Not to mention that his claims of this technique's power outshined most of his dragon abilities. He couldn't breathe that much fire at once, that's for sure. To hear that Danny had managed to guide him into something that amazing... "You should have trained with Danny a lot sooner."

"Yeah. And hung out with him more." Jake was quick to agree. "He is such a cool guy, you know? But what can I say, we all had our own preferred group choices amongst the Guardians. You and Rai were mine."

Well, that was definitely true. Looking back on it, she had to admit everyone found other Guardians they were most comfortable with and some they did very little with. Danny had been drawn to the Tennysons, partly due to his and Ben's shared love of video games and the cousins' space connections. Kim had Jake and the girls as her go to friends and partners, though Gohan was her all time favourite sparring partner, being the only one to match her level in martial arts. The only one who made sure to spend a great deal of time with everyone was Roxas, the one everyone had a soft spot for, and even he was closer to Raimundo, Namine and Ben than anyone else. They were just starting to mix it up, training wise at least, when the mess Maleficent started broke loose. If the Valour Guardians were full restored, they'd have to fix that. She'd be a better friend, not just a teammate.

"So, anything special change in your life recently?" Jake asked, breaking her chain of thought. "Any serious problems or moments of entertainment, anything of real note?"

"Team Possible expanded." She offered with a grin. "Subconscious instinct and the last alien invasion helped that start up. The media hasn't gotten wind of it or doesn't care yet, but my friends Felix, Monique and Zita have all joined my crusade to save the world."

"Oh yeah? Sweet girl, you'll have to introduce them to me." Jake smirked. "So, tell me about them, how did they join? Come on girl, I'll deny I ever said it, but I need some gossip time. I've only got Gohan and Huey right now, so as interesting as they both are, nothing about the civilised world ever pops up."

"Sure, if you return the favour and tell me the details of this Duck of Doom sitch you're involved in." Kim nodded, biting her lip. "Is it really Donald? How did that happen?"

"Get comfy, girlfriend. By the time we're done, Gohan will be back from his day long fishing trip and then you'll get to hear all about that too." True to his word, they were talking for hours, each of them recounting their stories, feelings over particularly emotional circumstances, jokes, just about anything that came to mind. It did them both the world of good.

...

Leaving her room, Kim decided that calling Jake had been the best idea ever. Sure, a lot of his recent history had tears falling from her eyes and created a vendetta against Dark Dragon and Charmcaster, but overall, they had had a great time. After finding out that she was staying at Capsule Corp for a good few weeks, he even promised to drop in once they ditched the dragons tailing him. Assuming they didn't get a better lead on finding Donald, of course. If that happened, Team Possible was going to find them and kick the wicked witch that took him where the sun didn't shine. Sure, it would have been better if she'd gotten to talk to Gohan too, but she was sure that she'd hear from him later. He and Huey were still off getting food or clues even when she'd hung up, but Jake promised to tell them all about their talk. She couldn't wait for the call, she'd love the chance to catch up with and meet Gohan and Huey respectively.

But for now, there were plenty of new and old faces to find already in the building. Though they were a little hard to find in such a big place, especially since Kim got lost a good few times. Still, she found her way to them eventually. The battle cries, cheers and small explosions didn't hurt either.

"Man, look at them go!"

"Zita is nuts! Who in their right mind gets in the middle of something like this?"

"Us? Seriously Felix, did you have your head under a rock after that last mission to that psycho golfer's island? Not all of us were safe in the sky, hover boy."

"Safe? I ended up being an easy target!"

BANG!

"What's going on?" Felix and Monique flinched at the sight before them before turning welcoming smiles to Kim as she entered the training room. Both were sitting near the door, well away from the invisible barrier.

"See for yourself." Felix pointed across the room. "Zita's bitten off more than she can chew."

Kim didn't need him to say anything, one look at the others and her jaw was already aiming for the ground. Behind the barrier, Zita was charging right into a battle involving Goten, Trunks and Ron. She was light on her feet and holding a metal rod like a sword, swinging it expertly as she weaved through everything thrown at her. Normally that was fine, Zita was as talented in real swordplay as she was in Everlott. The problem was that the three boys she was fighting were all glowing and unleashing attacks that could break her in half.

Having finally mastered his mystical power, Ron was fully encased in a blue, glowing outline of a monkey and was pulling off gymnastic and offensive feats that were on par with Kim's, only his had a lot more force behind them. Though nowhere as fast, he was proving to be even stronger than Trunks and his flexibility more than made up for the lack of flight.

Still, Zita looked to be having the time of her life, sidestepping every energy last shot her way, ducking under Ron as he performed a flip would have broken even Kim's back if she attempted it and unleashed a series of sword slashes at Goten. The boy dodged or blocked every one with his finger, But Zita still pressed on until a retaliatory kick had her leaping safely away only for Ron to knock her down while using her as a springboard and move on to strike both boys into the walls with spinning kicks.

"I thought she was crazy when just the kids were going at it." Monique sighed, shaking her head as all three of the fallen fighters got up only for Ron to quickly and effectively jump, flip and redirect all around the area in seconds, smacking all three right back down again in the process. Though she'd seen that he'd really stepped up, quite amazingly so, Ron hadn't had a reason to completely cut loose and unleash his full power before now. The Saiyan boys were the first people he'd fought since the invasion that had the ability to stand up to the assault and Ron was taking full advantage of it, though being careful to pull back whenever he reached Zita. The sight before them was like nothing either she or Felix would have believed possible a few months ago. Hell, they had trouble believing it now.

Even Kim was still impressed with her boyfriend's growth. Seeing his power firsthand, she compared it to those of the Guardians and was pretty sure he was comparable in power to Danny and Jake overall, if not a bit greater, with enough raw strength to match Ryo's Thunderclap technique and an unpredictability to his unusual moves and twists that made him as tricky to fight as Raimundo. She really doubted that even she could take him on in a direct fight anymore, even with the battle suit. Watching him easily take on two Saiyan hybrids at once, even ones so young as Goten and Trunks, was definitely emphasising that opinion.

The match went on for a little longer, but it was clear who was going to win. Even when it turned to three on one, Ron was still outclassing them all, ultimately ending with a flash of mystical energy from his hands knocking all three down and groaning. Although, as impressive as the shot was, Kim could tell from one look at her boyfriend's face that it wasn't intentional, but rather an act of desperation. As all three opponents had come at him, backing him into a corner, he'd grown terrified for his safety.

There were flaws in Ron's new abilities and the others had caught his biggest one, whether they realised it or not. Ron's incredible strength, skills and power all came from mystical energy, not muscle or mind. Though the mystical monkey power altered his flexibility to extremes even an Olympic gold medallist gymnast could only dream of and put a great deal of force behind his punches and kicks, his physical strength and tolerance to the attacks of others were no different than before. On top of that, the instinctive skill and recent discovery of it left him near useless with combat strategy. So cornering and overwhelming him was the best and easiest strategy to use against him.

"Oops. Is everyone ok? I think I overdid that one." Huffing a little as his adrenaline died, Ron quickly moved over to Zita and the kids, falling to his knees before them in near panic as they only groaned in return. "Oh no, stay alive kids, STAY ALIVE! That Vegeta guy will kill me if you don't."

"Ron, get a grip. They're just stunned." Kim groaned with a roll of her eyes, passing through the barrier and shutting it down as Felix rolled over with the First Aid kit. Though she was a little more worried about Zita, Monique had already moved to her side and helped her to her feet, quickly assuring that nothing was broken.

"Yeah, like you're really tough enough to kill us!" Trunks grunted, trying to sound tough and force himself into a sitting position only to ruin it when he lost his balance and flailed all the way back down. "Saiyans are made to take a punch!"

"That was fun!" Though still a little shaky, Goten was already shooting Ron a big, bright smile as he rolled over. "I didn't know there were humans that strong on their own! I think you could take on Gohan's friend, Justiman. Can we do this again tomorrow? Please?"

"Yeah, sure kid. Why not? Hehe. Oh, thank goodness." Ron sighed, leaning back on his elbows as the kids shook off their aches and got back to their feet. "I'm not gonna die."

"Yeah, I'm fine too, Ron! Thanks for the concern." Zita grunted, quickly getting a stuttered apology from the blond. All the same, the grin was on her face before she even finished rolling her eyes. She'd had a great time and was just as keen to go again. Taking on people as strong as these three, with their ki and magic, it was like a real life Everlott. Exciting and challenging, just how she liked it, and she intended to learn to succeed against the task. There was a way, she knew it and she'd find it.

"So, now that we got the brawl out of the way, what do you say we get a late lunch and explore the city?" Monique suggested as she and Felix checked over Zita, quickly summing most of it up as bruises and muscular pain she could just walk off. "West City is supposed to be awesome! Mrs Briefs told me about all the killer malls in the area, wonderful cafes and a park that's full of beautiful water fountains and flower gardens. We could get a late lunch, see some of the sights and shop till we drop!"

"Ugh! They just got boring." Kim almost laughed at the look of distaste on Trunks' face as he grabbed Goten by the sleeve, dragging him away. "Come on Goten, let's head to my room."

"Yay! Toy time!" Trunks actually stumbled as the excited Goten overtook him once again, bringing a laugh from the young adults they left behind.

"They sure recover fast." Felix commented, resting his amused face in his hand.

"Heh, Saiyans. Nothing keeps them down long." Kim shook her head with a grin before turning back to Monique. "But yeah, I say let's go, get out of Capsule Corp's hair for a while. I could use a new wardrobe to take to college with me."

"You're going to London for college! You'll buy a whole new set of clothes there." Ron exclaimed, raising an eyebrow at her. "You've been going on about that since you chose which admission to accept!"

"Yeah, but clothes from Japan will be more exotic!" Kim responded like it was the most obvious thing in the world, quickly getting an encouraging nod from Monique. "And there's no reason I can't do both."

"Geez, women!" Ron just gave up, throwing his arms in the air as he turned to Felix. "How many clothes can they possibly need?"

"Enough each to create a fabric shortage in businesses for months." Felix laughed, completely ignoring the raised eyebrows and scoffs he got in response the girls sent his way. "But it won't be all bad, Ron. While they try on every item in the store, we'll go check out the video games. Like half of our games come from Japan you know, and come out a lot earlier too. I heard Goo Zombies five is already out here."

"Perfect! Let's go!" Well, that got Ron good and excited. Now it was the girls' turn to roll their eyes in exasperation. How guys got so excited over video games was well beyond them. Still, whatever, as long as those stupid things got the boys to go shopping with them, they were good.

...

"I got a visual. She's leaving the building."

"Are any of the Briefs or Z Fighters leaving with her?"

"No, just Ron Stoppable, a couple of girls and a paraplegic male."

"Keep an eye on her. This might be our one chance to safely pull this off."

"Acknowledged." Quickly moving from one shadow to the next and over rooftops, the man followed them, grateful that they were opting to travel on foot. It allowed him to keep them well within his sight at a safe, undetected distance. The tales of Kim Possible were legendary, even to the Shadows, before they knew the forgotten truth and rumour had it that Ron Stoppable had finally mastered Mystical Monkey Power, something that even Ra's Al Ghul didn't know all the details about, only that it was ancient and dangerously strong at the boy's level. And that's saying nothing of their new connections. If they realised they were under threat, the Shadows may never get them.

He couldn't let that happen. He couldn't fail his master.

* * *

 **AN:** Hey guys, sorry about the long wait. My laptop died on me and it had all my notes and written chapters for every story currently active. I only just got the hard drive back. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.


	6. Shop Till They're Dropped

**Shop Till They're Dropped**

The mall experience basically went just how everyone imagined it would. The girls squealed at the sight before them, the boys held their ears with pained groans and everyone moved so fast, dragging everyone else with them to each and every shop that they almost figured out how to be in three places at once. And of course, since that wasn't actually possible for the normal human and fighting each other was hazardous, after half an hour, the girls dived shoulder deep into a cosmetics department while the boys made a beeline to an arcade. Needless to say, that worked out better for everyone.

Especially since the girls' next stop was a Club Banana.

"I can't believe how different the stock is here from home!" Monique gushed, running her fingers through a red, silk shirt. "I never saw any of this stuff on the store's potentials catalogs."

"Goes to show how even international, American founded companies are affected by different cultures." Zita grinned, already heading toward the changing rooms with her hands full.

"And it shows you just how much Kim has been holding out on me." Monique added with mock irritation, her hand on her hips as she turned pointedly to her best friend. "You never told me about any of this, girl! I'm hurt."

"I don't usually go shopping during my globetrotting." Kim shrugged, marveling a pair of formfitting, silver pants. "Half the time we're in the middle of nowhere, remember? Or trying to stop an assassination? And then I usually had to get home before the next cheer squad practice or a trig exam with flights that could take half a day. Where was the time to shop? So, what do think of these?"

"With the right top, they'll look wonderful girl!" Monique grinned back, dropping the act as she scanned a rack and pulled out an emerald green sleeveless shirt. "Like this! It suits the pants and brings out your eyes. What do you think?"

"I think if it's comfortable, I'm buying them." Was Kim's response, both girls giggling as they went after Zita.

….

"Score! Wrestling Federation Deluxe! Monique's gonna flip when she sees this!" Felix could only laugh as Ron jumped around like a monkey, the videogame held in his raised hand.

'Doesn't she hate video games?"

"Not ones that have her beloved Pain King as a playable character." Ron replied, shoving it proudly right into Felix's face. Sure enough, both of his friends' favorite wrestlers, Pain King and Steel Toe, were right there on the cover. "She loves these ones, so much that she actually manages to cream me as often as I beat her."

"Wow, imagine if she played games as much as you did. She'd be the greatest gamer in the world." Felix grinned, taking the game and placing it on the pile on his lap. "By the way, you are shopping within your budget, right? I'm trying not to go broke." He added, pointing to the pile. Most of it was Ron's and it was getting big.

"Don't worry, I won't touch a cent from your wallet." Ron waved it off, dashing right out of the game section and heading toward the MP3s and headsets. "I've got a set amount of cash in my wallet that I am binding myself to. I won't even touch my cards. I gotta keep some money for Bueno Nacho's and a roof over my head."

"Wow. Ron Stoppable thinking ahead. Good thing I'm already sitting down."

"Oh, ha, ha! Extra ha!" Ron rolled his eyes as Felix snickered. "I get it, Ron's an idiot, never thinks past ten minutes."

"Unless he's predicting the next ridiculous, overdramatized disaster." Felix added helpfully with a bright smile.

"I can't believe you! You're supposed to be my best friend and my go-to partner after summer. How can you speak so poorly of me?"

"Because, after Kim, I know you better than anyone and best friends have a right to point out your flaws mercilessly?" Felix offered mischievously. "I mean, we do have to put up with your flaws more than anyone else, might as well get some fun out them. And yours are so amusing, before they cause anyone watching you to come down with severe vertigo and migraines anyway, you overdramatic goofball."

"I thought you were supposed to embrace my flaws and push me up, not smack me down." Ron retorted, staring down at him accusingly.

"Of course! I do that too. I just take the right road for the right situation." Ron gave up, there was no way he was going to win this. Felix' wit and quick responses were unmatched on their team, a feat in itself considering that Kim and Monique were always quick with a smart comment too. It was probably best to quit before someone important found him floundering.

Sighing in defeat, he took one more look around the shelves before deciding that he'd grabbed enough for now. "Whatever, let's go and pay for this stuff and head to the food court. We never did grab that lunch."

"Now you're talking my language." Beaming proudly, Felix was all too happy to follow.

….

"Master, this might be the best opportunity we are going to get anytime in the near future. Kim Possible is away from all Z Fighter contacts and Stoppable is on the other side of the mall. She'll never be any more vulnerable within the timeframe of our…deal."

Ra's frowned digustedly at the term, his face agreeing completely with the tone of his minion's voice. The sooner he could be done with that putrid ghost, the better. Still, at the moment, he stilled had to at least look like he was playing along.

That was tricky though. Dealing with Kim Possible had to be quick and clean, otherwise Plasmius would discover the deception, and that was only the original case. Now there were a great many more concerns to consider. Kim was reconnected and staying under a roof of the Z Fighters. Drawing their attention to the Shadows simply could not happen and this made that very situation a dangerously decent possibility, especially since they weren't in a position to set up their own deception. Normally, in a situation like this, he'd put a duplicate, dead body in the place of his supposed victim, but that required timing and preparation, two things that they did not have now. But he agreed with his warrior, this was likely going to be their only chance. As unprepared and under-armed as his spies were, this was the only time that they could possibly succeed. So that left only one thing to do.

"Proceed. However, whether you succeed or fail, eliminate any possible trail to the Shadows. As far as anyone is concerned, you are bounty hunters or minions in the service of her enemies. Understood?"

"Yes master." The line went dead a moment later, not that Ra's cared at all. No, he had already dipped into great thought. He would still have to find a lookalike to kill and replace Kim quickly, assuming this worked, to stop people from looking and fully satisfy that deranged ghost hybrid, but even that was only a passing thought. His men in the area, their skills and their chances were what weighted on his mind. There was a total of twenty assassins currently watching West City, most of them keeping an eye on Capsule Corp and Vegeta. Therefore, he knew that the only Z Fighter currently in the city was Videl, who was currently helping her pompous father with the background work of his new resort. That was more than reassuring in one sense, but in another, it meant that there was no way for them to gather before their window of opportunity closed. At the most, five of them would be involved, which normally was overkill, but wanting Kim alive and the nature of both her skills and her nearby boyfriend's amazing power made plenty of room for failure, to say nothing of the fact that they had to make her disappear from a very crowded area and the fact that they were making her disappear at all when they supposedly intended to kill her. This operation was going to be very tricky to pull off.

Still, there was nothing he could do about it. Leaning back in his chair, Ra's Al Ghul closed his eyes and cleared his mind, letting himself slip into meditation. Worrying about it would do nothing. He could only hope that fate's fortune shined on him this day.

….

"Girl, you aren't serious!"

"Totally. Not only do they look good, but they make for an awesome little weapon."

"And will kill your feet on the go, assuming that they don't send all of you to the ground! They are not made for hoofing it!"

Kim wisely opted to keep out of this one as they exited the shoe store, all of them with at least two boxes. This particular debate was over a pair of sharp heeled stilettos Zita thought would make a badass mission shoe. Not that she was completely insane, she intended to have Wade modify them, make the heel detachable, but any amount of time on those anti-balance nightmares could result in her death. Still, that was Monique's argument, Zita wasn't listening and Kim wasn't about to risk the action girl's irritation being pointed her way pointlessly. An angry Zita was scary.

She much preferred looking out for their next store. Like the jewelry store. It had been a long time since she bought her last set of earrings and a necklace in the display window looked beautiful. Yep, that was her next stop.

"Come on girls, either way, the shoes are gorgeous and Zita will get a lot of good use out of them. Argue later, shop now. Check these out!" The girls' argument was quickly forgotten as their eyes fell onto all the delicately crafted gold and silver.

"I concede to your point, girl!" Monique squealed.

"Hey, they're having a sale. Maybe shopping here won't break the bank today!" Zita didn't even wait for the others, rushing straight in.

"Break the bank? She wears more jewelry than you and I combined." Kim muttered amusedly, shaking her head as her eyes followed her excited friends.

"Without looking tacky. The girl's got style." Was Monique's only response before she dived right in too, dragging Kim right along. "Now come on, the perfect accessory to that new dress of yours is in this store and we are going to find it."

"I just hope it's in my price range." Kim just laughed, more than happy to be dragged to the display marked with the bargain signs.

….

A ding resounding in his earpiece was all the assassin needed. Before it even faded, he was on the move, blending in with the crowd before entering the jewelers. At the same time, he knew that two of his brethren were on the roof, quickly making their way down through the vents, while the fourth and final assassin they'd managed to draw in was moving in on Stoppable. The mystic wasn't going to have any chance of reaching Possible until it was far too late.

Taking a quick, cursory look around the shop, he sent back a signal of his own, alerting his allies of Kim's exact position, and moved slowly around the room, being careful to look like a shopper as he moved closer and closer to his target.

He didn't have to wait long. Within two minutes of the first ding, it had already begun. Beginning with a bang as thick smoke exploded from the ventilation system.

"AAHHH!"

"Fire!"

"Everyone, remain-ARGH!" Exactly as planned. The smoke was so thick; almost everyone was basically blind and panicking. The perfect environment for an abduction.

Ripping a pair of heat infrared goggles and an air mask from his pocket the moment it all began, the assassin moved right in.

"Kim, what do we-argh!"

"Whaa!" Before Monique could even finish, he launched a swift kick into her gut a split second before landing a vicious uppercut into Zita's jaw, effectively sending both of the crashing into display cases.

"Hey! HA!" Kim however, was much more experienced, easily twisting out of his attempted chokehold and dropping into a sweep kick, knocking his feet out from under him. Hitting the floor, he quickly rolled away from her following axe kick and onto his feet, reassessing her. He had to admit, he was impressed. This girl was worthy of joining the Shadows. Her moves were quick and fluid, her instincts and other senses more than capable of making up for her lack of vision. She was proficient at singling sounds out too, for all her strikes were spot on, aimed exactly for where he made noise, despite the screaming and running all around them. Even now, she was coming at him with a perfectly aimed open palm.

"You have a lot of nerve, attacking my friends right in front of me!" Kim growled as they fell into a little dance, Kim lashing out and the assassin back stepping as he deflected each shot, all the while avoiding the stragglers still screaming and fleeing the scene. "Just who are you anyway?"

"A thief. And you're in my way." Well, that loud declaration should help with his cover. After all, there were plenty of overly arrogant jewel thieves in the world.

Still, that wouldn't do him any good if his help didn't get there soon. Vision advantage or not, he couldn't even spare the time and limbs to pull out a sedative, much less use it. As much as he hated to admit it, Kim was well above him in fighting talent.

….

"Look out, coming through!"

"AAHHH!" Half the people in the mall were dropping to the ground and diving away as a swinging Ron and racing wheelchair ploughed right through the masses.

The screams had reached half the mall before the smoke alarms even started, sending both boys on high alert. Abandoning their food, they sped their way right for it.

"So, you think the girls will beat us there?" Felix asked casually.

"Hopefully, we're not going fast enough." Ron exclaimed loudly as he reached the escalator and swung into a flip onto the railing, running up it. He had no idea how Felix always stayed calm and relaxed through these things, he'd been doing it for years and still tended to panic. "Can't you fly?"

"Nope, people are too close, takeoff could hurt them." Felix called ahead. "I have to wait for an opening."

"Then cat-argh!"

"Ron!" Felix was stunned, almost crashing himself as he watched Ron fall. It had happened so fast, Felix didn't even know where it came from. All he knew was that something shining in the light struck Ron's ankle and now he was falling back first toward the hard, concrete floor, too far off for Felix to reach in time.

Fortunately, Ron's instincts took over, pulling his body so he'd land with a roll and limit the injuries.

"Argh!" Still, that kind of fall did still hurt and so did crashing your leg into a wall corner. Especially when it was already bleeding.

"Ron, are you ok? Can you stand up?" Rolling up next to him, Felix leaned down and tried to help the injured blond to his feet.

"Yeah, but I'm not getting far on my bad leg." Ron grunted, leaning heavily on the wheelchair for support. "Felix, you gotta fly us up!"

"Well, no one is around us now." Felix nodded. Pulling Ron onto his lap, he set the chair up and took off.

Only for a guy to come out of nowhere and kick them both right out of the chair. Screaming, both boys hit the ground again while the chair flew off randomly and hit a wall before crashing down itself.

"Ok, who is this jerk?" Groaning, Ron glared up around them as he tried to disentangle himself from Felix, only to find that he was nowhere to be seen. Though it didn't take a rocket scientist to find him when security guards were tumbling down the escalators. He was back up on the upper level.

"He sure doesn't waste time." Pulling himself up on his arms, Felix could do little more than watch, flinching as two guards bounced and rolled down the moving stairs. "Are we dealing with a Meta here or something?"

"Don't know. Don't care." Pulling himself up onto his good leg, Ron quickly looked the guards over, making sure they were still breathing, before crouching down onto three limbs and charging up again like a monkey. "One way or the other, I'm taking this guy down."

….

"HA!" Kim smirked in victory as her flying kick hit its mark. Not only was it a perfect shot, but it had sent her opponent sprawling back and right out of the store and the smokescreen. Pressing on, she followed him right out, a series of rapid slashes, punches and kicks, leaving her opponent completely off balance and stumbling around, failing to keep up in the slightest. More than half her shots were hitting their mark, while the rest were avoided more from stumbling feet than intended dodging. She had this in the bag.

"Any time now!" That is, until her enemy took his eyes off of her completely. They were all the warning she got before she was jabbed in the back.

Her eyes sprung open wide and agonized as every cell in her being screamed, as if they were on fire. Her whole body tensed as electricity coursed her entire being before falling bonelessly to the floor, only to be gathered into her new assailant's arms.

' _Where did he come from?'_ Her vision quickly darkening, she barely even had time to register a third, unnoticed accomplice reaching out for her as she was dragged back into the smoke before everything went black.

….

Once Ron could actually reach the guy, he went down fast. Fed up and scratching the surface of his power, he leapt high and over the next dagger, grabbed the man by the shoulders and swung around him before landing a mystically amplified kick to the side of the face. The guy didn't even have time to scream before he hit and bounced along the ground, completely out cold.

"Great, one problem down, one to…oh no." All sense of excitement and satisfaction at his solo victory completely disappeared as his eyes followed the smoke. It was fading away now, which likely meant that whatever it was there to cover was done, one way or another. Normally Ron would assume that Kim had wrapped things up, however, as the jewelry store was revealed, the assumption was quickly proven false as the limp state of his friends were revealed. "Monique! Zita!

"Come on guys, wake up." Rushing to their sides, Ron quickly checked them over, only growing more scared as he found both of them sporting head wounds and glass cuts scattered all over their upper bodies. It was only when he checked both of their pulses and found them strong that he let himself relax even slightly.

That however, didn't even last a full minute as he looked around the room, only to find an utter lack of red hair. That couldn't be right. Kim was with the girls, if they were here, then she should be too. Not only that, but Kim would never leave them like this if they were hurt, at the very least she'd make sure someone else was there to take care of them.

The urge to panic quickly rising, he whipped up his wrist and activated his new communicator, his fingers stumbling over the buttons in their haste to call Kim.

BEEP,BEEP, BEEP-BEEP!

Only for him to gasp in terror as Kim's Kimmunicator gave off its signature beep from where it lay near an open air vent.

"No…KIM!" Without so much as a single thought, Ron leaped right up and into the vent, throwing himself through the tight maze faster than ever before, looking for any sign of her. Unfortunately, there wasn't so much as a strand of hair to be found.

She was gone.


	7. Confused and Scrambled

**Confused and Scrambled**

"Not only can the Nirvosh transform into a vehicle form, but it also has the ability to fly. In his own world at least. That ability won't work here though."

"And why is that?"

"Because the flight system of every airborne unit of his world apparently works by working with something in the air called Trapars, a substance created by a breed of aliens known as Corolians and Scub Corals. Without them, all flight engines are useless."

"I see. Is there anything else to report?"

"Yes, the strangest thing." Artemis nodded, staring blankly at the man before her. "This machine apparently has some level of sentience, it's self aware. Renton admitted that it has, at times, moved on its own, assisting or coaxing its pilots. It knows what's going on around it and responds in kind, sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically."

"Well now, that is interesting." Ra's had to admit, that was more than he expected, in more ways than one. None of Artemis's reports had ever given him even the slightest shed of light on the nature of their newest machine, so the fact that she'd finally gotten the boy to reveal so much was quite a surprise, even to him. But then to hear that machine was almost alive, acting like a living person, now that was unexpected. A machine with an opinion of its own. He couldn't remember ever hearing of such a thing before. This would require a great deal more information to do anything with it, but now he knew which kinds of areas to look into.

"Has the boy mentioned anything that could possibly be used to…gain the machine's approval?"

"No master, he doesn't seem to know of any." Artemis sighed, shaking her head. "He is one of only two people who can pilot it. All others who have tried, even in his world with more knowledge of these kinds of machines than he has, have failed to make so much as the steering system move."

"I see." He thought that would be the case. The boy had cracked back when he was being interrogated and such information, though different from what they had been expecting, was still within the area of information Ubu had demanded to know. Still, the boy may have mentioned something in his talks with Artemis that he considered minor or unimportant. It seemed as though that hope was a false one. "Still, well done, young one. You have clearly gained the boy's trust. Now, begin bringing him to our way of thinking. It appears that we still need his cooperation."

"Of course, master." Rising to her feet, Artemis bowed her head and prepared to leave when a knock on the door met their ears. Waiting only for Ra's Al Ghul's invitation, a woman with a dark, Asian complexion, black hair curling just past her shoulders and clad in a tight, leather suit strode into the room.

"Great One, the mission was a success, for the most part. Kim Possible has been successfully captured and sufficient theft and damage have made it look as if expensive jewelry was the main target. The team is already on route back here. However, there was one disappointment. Our agent charged with distracting Stoppable has been apprehended."

"Then we will simply have to release him at first opportunity." Ra's replied calmly, completely unphased as a grin made it to his face. Considering the sudden course of action, amongst other factors, he could easily forgive the loss to a mystic, especially one with abilities even Ra's knew so little about. The power of all kinds of magic were dangerous even to the well prepared. Besides, his men and women knew what to do when arrested and the extreme importance of the Shadows' discrepancy in this matter. He would not reveal any secrets. "How long before she arrives, lady Shiva?"

"Within the hour."

"Excellent." Ra's was more than pleased to hear that. "Make sure that she is treated well. I will not have another case of unnecessary mistreatment. I do intend for her to either willingly join our cause or leave to continue her own part in my plan."

"Of course, Master." With a respectful bow, Lady Shiva exited the room as quickly as she appeared, leaving only Ra's and a baffled Artemis behind.

"We captured Kim Possible, Great One? I heard that she was currently in the company of Z Fighters. Forgive me for ever questioning you, but isn't that…risky?"

"Very." Ra's Al Ghul nodded, calming her anxieties. "It is not a move I have taken lightly, nor one I am happy to have made, let me assure you. However, we must create the illusion that Kim Possible has been removed from the board to maintain our deal and hope that Plasmius accepts her disappearance as her death. I do not believe that he will, but this will buy us some time."

"And her allies and the Z Fighters?"

"The risk has passed." Was all he would say on that matter. Taking that as her queue to leave, Artemis bowed one last time before exiting the room, leaving Ra's to his thoughts.

….

To say everyone in Bulma's lab was on edge and frantic was the understatement of the month. No matter where you looked, someone was breathing erratically, pulling at their hair or pacing trenches into the floor.

All work had stopped the moment a panicking Ron had called, screaming into his communicator. It had taken them a good eight minutes to calm him down enough to realize just what he was saying and, when they'd succeeded, they fell into a full blown panic all of their own.

Within moments, the entire team had jumped into action. Wade dived right into his computer, immediately hacking in to every security camera in the area, a job that was made a lot easier with help from Henry, only to groan at the resulting screen full of snow. Whoever was responsible for this, they were smart enough to ruin every one of the cameras long before the situation even began.

When that failed, he immediately set out to alert Global Justice and everyone in the network he and Kim had built up, while Henry moved on to security cameras around the city, starting with those near the mall, with the help of Jazz, trying to find a hint of Kim.

Meanwhile, Bulma had set up constant communication with Ron, quickly gathering all she could on the captured perp. Unfortunately, much to both her and team Possible's annoyance, he wasn't much help either. The police and Ron were interrogating him, but all they had gotten was that his name was Steve Loot and that he was a bounty hunter hired to assist with a series of robberies. Bulma had pulled a background check on his story, hoping for a flaw to exploit, but everything he said fit his MO. The only strange thing was that all records of him, criminal or otherwise, had ceased five years ago. It was as if he had dropped off the planet completely before now. Which also meant that they had absolutely no way of determining where he'd been or who he could be working for.

"You know this doesn't fit, right?" Then there was Ron. Now that the interrogations were over, Bulma's screen was only freed of the close ups of his hyperventilating face when he started pacing or throwing his arms sporadically enough to lose his balance. "A bounty hunter hired for a jewel robbery? He could just steal the jewels for himself! Even I know it's a load of crap! Bounty hunters do jobs that will get them a payment, not a payment for someone else. If he's that kind of crook, he could just steal the lousy rings and broaches for himself! And he was so smug the whole time he talked, he didn't even care that we knew his story was crap!"

"Well, duh, I know!" Bulma rolled her eyes. "All bounty hunter facts aside, what kind of thieves rob a store while a world famous, world saving hero is in not only in the building, but the very room you're targeting? And that says nothing about the fact that they sent a guy to target you and Felix too. He knows that we know he's lying, he just doesn't care! Trust me, everyone knows what the basic target really was here and it wasn't the latest accessory."

"The questions we need answered are who's the orchestrator, what is the reason for it and where did they take her?" Felix stated sadly, coming onto the screen with Monique and Zita close behind. Both girls looked a little bruised, but all three were definitely far more upset than hurt. "Did you guys find anything at all?"

"No." Wade sighed beside her, rubbing his head before staring forlornly at the screen. "Whoever these guys are, they are very good at what they do. Cameras all around the area were tampered with, no fingerprints, heck, even the microchip I put in her has been neutralized! We've got nothing to go on!"

"Well, that's not entirely true." Bulma shook her head, frowning hard as she pondered it all over, her hands dancing over her keypad. "The truth of the matter is that their precautions actually help with cropping the list of suspects. The team brought in were extremely good in combat to take on Kim for as long as the witness reports suggest. I'm also willing to bet that the men involved are also people who vanished from all records for a very long period of time, maybe not even have any at all. There are only so many shadow organizations that could pull this kind of thing off and even fewer with the gall to take on someone as tough and well connected as Kim and her mystic boyfriend. People that good would know what they're getting themselves into and wouldn't take that kind of risk unless they were extremely confident or desperate."

"Well, that definitely does shorten the list, but what if these guys are that good at their job all the time?" Zita asked, biting her lip hard as she glared at the ground. "The level of skill you're suggesting could have the entire group hidden from the world's knowledge."

"Possibly, but there is always whispers eventually, especially when they target such high profile people." Jazz called from another table, Henry nodding in agreement.

"One way or another, we'll find her." Bulma declared, her tone leaving no room for argument. "If these people wanted her dead, we'd have found a body, not a disappearing act. She's alive, she's resourceful and so are we. We'll find each other and then, if need be, we'll call in every contact we've got to blow them right off the map."

She meant every word of that. Vegeta himself would be sent to make a crater if she had any say about it. No one messed with her friends and allies. No one!

….

Artemis couldn't get thoughts through her head quick enough as she headed out for her daily training. Ra's was now well off her back, she was sure of that. She and Renton had determined and delivered more than enough information to satisfy him for quite a while. He wouldn't be nearly as pushy now for at least a week and what he'd received wasn't likely to lead him anywhere useful on this side of his portal.

If that wasn't enough, now there was this situation with Kim Possible. Artemis had been listening in around the League for a long time, she knew basically everything going on on that end. Kim Possible was not only a Valour Guardian in a forgotten piece of the past, but she had been reconnected to the Z Fighters and a few others through them. That was perfect. Kim's abduction was a risky move in general for the Shadows at this point. Of course, most of that risk would disappear once Kim made it to this fortress, no one would ever expect her to be found there.

' _Unless they were helped.'_ Artemis couldn't keep the smirk off of her face as her plan started taking shape. The combined forces of the powerful Z Fighters and the sneaky Team Possible was just the help she needed to get Renton, Nirvosh and the portal out of the League of Shadows' hands.

Of course, she still had to figure out how to leave the bread crumbs. That was going to take time, opportunity and probably a conversation with Kim herself to figure out, but she was sure that she would find a way. And in the meantime, she'd have to find a way to inconspicuously get close to Kim and make her trust her. That was going to take a little planning too. Still, she succeeded with Renton and she could succeed again.

Entering the training grounds, Artemis already couldn't wait for her session to be over. After all, Renton was going to jump for joy when he found out she finally had a way to save him.

….

Sad to say, the first sign of awareness for Kim just had to be a thriving migraine. Groaning loudly, she clasped her head and buried it into her pillow, trying to block out the light coming through the high wind…

' _What? That's not right.'_ The windows of her room were much bigger and began lower to the ground…and those in the room the girls were sharing at Capsule Corp reached from the floor to the ceiling. Though still groggy as hell, she forced herself to open her eyes and quickly grew more aware as the adrenaline pushed through. Stone walls, high, barred windows and an extremely thick, bolted door. The room was comfortably furnished, everything looking expensive, but it clearly a prison all the same.

If there was ever any doubt, the rattling of a chain and the constriction on her ankle as she sat up quickly abated it.

' _How did I…'_ The thought was quickly brought to a halt as her memories came flooding back, irritating her head even more. The smoke, the fight, the second guy, Mo- _'Monique and Zita!'_

"I see you're awake." Her panic was quickly forgotten for a moment as a cool, female voice met her ears, immediately bristling. Following the voice, she rose to her feet and glared at the bars through the door, revealing a woman with black her and dark eyes staring coldly right at her. "You have come too faster than expected. I'm almost impressed."

"Who are you?" Chained down or not, Kim set her body to pounce, her legs tense and her fists turning white as she only continued to clench them harder. Combine that with the look of pure fire in her eyes and the vicious glare her face had scrunched into and she looked as wild and dangerous as a hungry tiger. "What do you want with me and where are my friends? If you've hurt one hair on their heads, I'll-"

"Settle down, your friends are perfectly fine." The woman snapped coldly, cutting her off before Kim could grow any more aggressive. She loathed to admit it, but she was actually felt a little threatened by Kim, despite her imprisonment. It was extremely disconcerting for the usually unwavering assassin. "You are the only one that our men were ordered to capture and the rest were to remain unharmed. The master is favorable to your little banned of brats. As for who I am, my name is Lady Shiva. I am a loyal warrior of the League of Shadows."

"The League of Shadows?" Kim exclaimed, only tensing even more at that. She didn't know much, but she had heard tales and rumors of them. A legion of assassins, consisting of warriors of all kinds and from both sides of good and evil. They were brought together by a possibly immortal warrior to serve his objective, though no one could determine what that could possibly be. There were tales of him and his men committing great acts of good and unspeakable acts of evil. No one could find a pattern in the tales, except that the targets were always people of great, potentially world altering power, in one way or another, but even then, the connections were extremely weak and vague.

Now she was in their crosshairs. That wasn't good at all. That was actually very bad. According to what she'd heard, no one lived once the Shadows came for you. They were near unstoppable and would just keep coming until you were dead, regardless of how well you protect yourself.

But then, Lady Shiva's comment registered. Her team was favored by the Master. He didn't want them dead and he was only targeting her. If he did want her dead, then she would be dead right now, not given a lavished room for a holding cell. So then… "What does the Shadows want with me?"

"At the moment, very little." Lady Shiva answered uncaringly. 'We simply need you out of the way for a while. You should feel honored. We don't take prisoners. In a case like this, with anyone else we would have just killed you. We're going through a lot of hassle to keep you alive and comfortable."

"Is this where I say thankyou?" Kim retorted with a scowl, though she did let her body relax a little.

"I wouldn't expect it." Shiva replied, only irritating Kim even more as she remained unphased. "Though you should be grateful. Our…associate," Kim was actually surprised to see the cool mask actually break to reveal something vile at that word. "wants you dead. This is our compromise until our dealings are over."

"And what happens then?"

"That will be decided between the Master and you." Was Shiva's response as she turned to leave. "I suggest you get comfortable, for that will not be for a while. Food will be brought shortly." And with that, she was gone.

Groaning and stewing, Kim was tempted to demand that the woman come back, but thought better of it. Instead, she flopped on her bed and clenched her eyes shut, trying to think around her still throbbing headache. Lady Shiva wouldn't have given her any more information, she knew that. Assassins weren't exactly known for loose lips. But still, she had so many unanswered questions.

' _Why did they feel the need to kidnap me and only me?'_ That was definitely the biggest one on her mind, quickly followed by the connecting question, _'What are they planning?'_ For whatever reason, their disliked associate must have something big in mind that he was sure she would prevent. Which meant that it connected deeply, personally, to her, otherwise they'd target any hero. That sounded right, but she couldn't think of a thing that wouldn't involve her family and friends, which made leaving her team free pointless. Sure, she was the leader, the most experienced and the best fighter, but Ron had really stepped up and the others all perfectly talented. She'd let them all join the team for a reason, none of them were weak. They could deal with whatever came just fine.

The only other possibility that she could think of was revenge, but none of her villains were likely to be involved with the Shadows. They were nowhere near their league and would probably get killed if they tried to make any demands of the assassins, especially ones that went against the wishes of the immortal warrior leading them.

Completely at a loss, she just groaned again and closed her eyes, trying to calm her mind and sooth her pain. Unfortunately, there was too little to go on to hope to understand at the moment. She would just have to wait until she was back to full health and spoke to the leader. Chances were that he was the only one who was going to shed any light on her situation.

And until she had more information, she had no hope of getting out of here.


	8. Setting Wheels Into Motion

**Setting Wheels Into Motion**

"I was hoping for something more…confirming. Publicized."

"Then you should have been more specific." If nothing else, Vlad had to respect his less than willing partner. Most quickly lost themselves to nerves, full on fear or fury when faced with the irritation of Plasmius, but Ra's Al Ghul didn't so much as blink. His face was forever emotionless, his voice calm, collected and cold. Even his body posture never faltered from that of a man completely in control.

Admittedly, even Vlad was scared of this man and more than well aware that he was playing with fire. For all the cockiness and confidence, how assured he was of his victory whenever he schemed, every time a conversation began with Ra's, he was painfully squashed and humbled. Ra's did not respond to threats except to plan your murder, so any attempt to put any kind of pressure on the man had to be done with the utmost of care and delicacy. That was why Vlad immediately held his tongue. It was amazing that he'd managed to convince the Master of the Shadows to kill Kim at all, it was by far in his best interest not to push it. Even then, all of this had serious repercussions already in play. Though he quickly forgot when the calls had ended, he was far from safe. His very deal had alerted Ra's to his return and the man was well equipped to take Vlad down when this deal ran its course. Vlad could only hope that his preparations were better in this case.

"I suppose you're right." Sighing, Vlad openly conceded with a sip of his tea. "It only matters that she's gone. Though not soon enough, apparently."

"Capsule Corp is already putting a plan concerning your Valour Guardians of their own into action, one that had already involved her. So you are aware of the risk this puts on our agenda." Ra's nodded, his eyes sharpening and sending a shiver down Vlad's spine. "So you will also concede that I will make no more side moves for your assistance. The risk that came with the Z Fighters' involvement has put the very source of our agreement at risk. I shall not take such foolish action against your foes again."

"Don't worry, I intend to deal with the rest of the teen do-gooders myself. I already have the next target all planned out." Vlad assured him, waving the matter right off. "All I expect from your side of our deal now is the piece we both need; how is the robot dilemma progressing?"

"It is confirmed, only two people alive can pilot the machine and one is not in our world." Was Ra's response, one again looking completely unflappable while Vlad was reduced to irritated groaning. "We are working on gaining favor with the boy. A young pupil has made notable progress in gaining the boy's trust. For now, we will simply have to hope that she will progress well enough for him to willingly transport one of our people. I trust you will arrive soon for maintenance?"

Vlad had to hold back a smirk at that. It was the one thing that kept their deal going. There were only three people in the world who knew how to make and maintain inter-dimensional portals, the other two of which never having bothered to look past the possibilities of breaking into the Ghost Zone, and not one of them was likely to reveal so much as a blueprint to the anyone. On top of that, the filters, among other things, had to be monitored, changed and adjusted frequently or it would explode. Ra's Al Ghul had plenty of intelligent people within his League that could determine how to do it of course, but not without reverse engineering the machinery, a process that would take far too long for the portal to survive without it. Until they were done with the portal, they needed Vlad. Though, since they had the only device that had safely come through the portal and made sure that he couldn't overshadow the only person who could pilot it, he needed them until the end. As upsetting as it was to everyone, both sides had to stay within their agreement until the very end or there was no way of obtaining what they were both so desperate for.

"Yes, of course. It's the third errand on my little list. Good day, Ra's Al Ghul." Ending the call, Vlad immediately let the dark smirk spread across his face. In all honesty, his plan was possibly working even better than before. The only power on Earth that Ra's truly fretted about going up against was the Z Fighters. The alien and alien hybrids were incredibly strong, fast, powerful and well aware of their environment, making assassinating them almost impossible. They didn't even need to twitch a hand to explode with power and whip up powerful gales and long ranged, poisonous weapons had trouble piercing their durable skin. That was why both he and Ra's wanted the metal of the Nirvosh's world. It was the one thing they knew of that could stand up to even their strength.

And now there was a chance that those very fighters would charge at Ra's' temple. Whether they won or lost, the Shadows would take heavy damage. More than enough for Vlad to swoop in and take the boy and his overgrown toy for himself. All because what he had hoped to stop had already begun.

"Who knew those brats would actually come in handy?" The thought definitely amused him, though it did suggest trouble. Kim's team was still reacquainted with Capsule Corp and unlike Jake, they had brought Kim's contacts with them. That was a problem, one that had him quickly moving to update his data.

His scowl only deepened as he noticed the Wong boy and Jazz Fenton were at Capsule Corp too. Butter biscuits, how did he miss that? Combining that with Jake Long, five Guardians or their allies had reunited! He would have to move quicker with the others, neutralize them quickly.

"And, of course," Despite what he'd found, the dark smirk didn't take long to return to his face as he turned his attention to another table, one that held nothing more than a small box. "If all goes according to plan, I won't have to worry about those gathered anyway. Their gathering of the minds will work perfectly in my favor. Hahahaha!"

….

To say that Artemis was reaching her limit as she lounged on Renton's bed was an understatement. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that any break in character could get her killed, she would have taken off like a bomb by now.

It had been almost a week since Kim Possible was brought in and yet nothing had managed to come of it. Kim was under the constant guard of Lady Shiva, a good choice considering just how dangerous and valuable Kim could be, and she wouldn't let anyone other than the Master himself near the teen hero. The closest Artemis could get to her was being the one who brought Kim's meal to Shiva.

Then there was the Master. He had exhausted his interest in her reports much earlier than expected and was putting the pressure right back on her. He wanted Renton as his willing pilot very soon. Nothing else was worth caring about anymore, only the boy's willingness to help. On top of that, she was being watched, critically. She never saw them, specifically spying, but she could tell. She knew all along that Master didn't trust her as much as he appeared to and Ubu was openly accusative, but it seemed to have only gotten worse since Kim arrived. If she made any mistake now, even a single, second long slip up, she was dead meat.

"So, this Kim Possible girl. You mentioned she's quite the icon, right?" Renton asked casually, drawing the assassin's eyes back his way. The boy looked completely relaxed as he kicked around a hacky sack, every kick precise in position and strength. He was far better at it now than he was when Artemis first gave him the thing. "Can't imagine someone like that disappearing could just be left alone."

"Trust me, it hasn't been." Artemis rolled her eyes as she rose to her feet, lashing out with a quick kick of her own and swiping the toy with a smirk. "Reports back confirm that everyone from the basic media to the top Government spy organization on the planet is searching for her. Considering the victim, they already made the search worldwide." She added, kicking the sack back.

"That makes all this a pretty gutsy move then, doesn't it?" Renton mused flippantly. Or at least, that was how his voice and posture displayed it. It took everything Artemis had not to smirk with pride. The boy she'd met as a total mess could never have held up even the slightest façade, yet there he was, looking and sounding perfectly innocent and uncaring…until you saw the sharp glint in his eyes as he stared right into hers. "Especially bringing her here. It could draw attention to everything they've got going on here. This is the League of Shadows' number one base or home, isn't it? Seems kind of silly to risk that much outside attention ever being turned this way."

"It would never happen." Artemis bragged, putting up the perfect air of confidence. "The place is well protected and isolated. Anyone who still manages to get close finds the world's most deadly assassins in their path and never says anything to anyone ever again. No one or thing has ever gotten in or out alive unless the master wished it." _'But you already knew all that. What's your angle, Renton?'_

Renton may have looked it a lot, but he was no fool. He'd long figured out that they were being watched too. It probably helped that he was technically a high level fugitive back in his world, there was always a reason to look over your shoulder with that kind of life. Now he was sneaky too, courtesy of Artemis, making it easy for them to plan without looking like they're planning. After all, it's the harmless, casually given information that could often have the most deadly agendas or possibilities hidden within it. If you knew what to look for.

"Not a chance. Not a thing. Can't have that reputation ruined." Renton laughed, kicking the hacky sack right at Artemis' chest, forcing her to catch it. "The League of Shadows. We're so badass, even our garbage isn't allowed off the mountain unless we say so. Not one speck of dust on the wind will stand against our stride for perfection!" The dork couldn't stop snickering as he puffed up his chest, looking as dramatic and mighty as he could. However, he still stared pointedly Artemis the whole time, willing her to get the message.

Unfortunately, while she smirked at his display, she was about ready to tear her hair out. Where was this going exactly? A mass search, the temple's protection and precautions, then not even garbage leaving carelessly? How did that…

' _A speck of dust!'_ Her smirk suddenly grew a lot more genuine as that clicked. That clever little boy.

….

The week had not been kind to people of Capsule Corp. In fact, most of them looked like total wrecks. Especially Team Possible.

The pure dread was starting to settle in and the panic was getting out of control, especially in Ron. The blond boy had gotten so freaked out that they had to strap him down and, when even that failed, sedate him. It was either that or he'd hurt himself or run randomly around the entire world barging in on anyone and everyone to ever have a criminal file. They didn't have a clue what they'd do once he woke up.

Still, at least he was given a chance to sleep. Most of the others weren't so lucky. Jazz and the Briefs forced them all to bed every night, but so few actually slept at all that the effort was almost pointless. Dark bags plagued everyone's eyes as they went about their days. Felix was the only one that was still optimistic and he forever tried to lighten the mood, but even he was starting to cave under his fear, dread and sleep deprivation. Henry doubted any of them would be of any use when they actually found Kim. He was willing to put good money on them cheering at finding her location and then promptly passing out in a heap.

Wade probably wasn't going to get that far. The youngest prodigy never strayed from his keyboard. Even when you managed to drag him to his room and lock the door at night, demanding he sleep, when you opened it the next morning, you'd find him hard at work on a handheld he seemingly pulled out of nowhere. Seriously, you'd think he was a meta human with his talent making those things appear! He simply refused to stop looking and if the rest of them made it impossible to keep going, he simply found ways to defy reality. Not that it had done him or anyone any good. They still hadn't managed to find any clues.

Henry wasn't even helping with the search anymore. He'd set up a few programs to help monitor for any hints of Kim, but mostly he'd turned his attention back to his projects. No one was getting anywhere that way and they'd long exhausted all of his ideas, so he moved to distracting himself. And nothing was better for that job than working on the Fenton Ecto-suit data.

He was only getting the occasional bit of help from Jazz now, but he was pleased to say that he'd made a lot of progress. He had almost all of it translated and summarized into a state that was understandable to everyone involved in the project now and was already set to tweak it.

He'd only needed another template for what they'd intended to make together. Which only required a quick stroll through Wade's files to obtain. Grinning a little to himself, he plugged a USB into his computer and immediately watched as he willed the information on Kim's battle suit onscreen.

Scanning over the data, it didn't take him long at all to get the gist of it and quickly set to work. He already knew what basic changes Wade had hoped to make, he'd made plenty of notes over possible changes and upgrades and all of them would be easy for him, now that he had all the data. Kim's suit was the perfect template for both Wade and Jazz's designs, it wouldn't take long at all to finish a model. A few additions and tweaks from the Fenton data, and both the suit's forcefield and strength enhancement systems were amplified dramatically, while modifications from his own tech made the body-to-suit energy transference twenty times safer.

The suit wasn't initially designed for offensive force, but it was easy to add a few dangerous tricks, the most notable being the ability to throw a forcefield at opponents. After that, he added a few items and features of his own design before moving on to altering the energy sources and ratio settings into safe, stable forms.

"Wow. You got that going quick." He boy almost flew right out of his voice as the voice came from behind him. He was so deep into his work that he never even noticed that Jazz was approaching. Whipping his head back, startled grey eyes locked on to burdened, but amused blue ones before the young Fenton turned her attention back to the screen. "I can't determine all the details, but that model definitely looks impressive. Is that Kim's new design?"

"Yeah. I figured that she'd probably need it when we find her." He confirmed, bringing up the suit's nanobot data with a blink of his eyes. "Whoever was good enough to take her has to have a lot of resources behind them and we don't know what kind of shape she's in, so I thought that it would be best to prepare her a bit of aid. If nothing else, it'll allow her to shield herself from any danger. I'm trying to get the nano-tech to better help supporting any injured muscles too, but we'll see how that goes. I don't have much experience with that kind of thing."

"Probably a wise move." Taking a seat beside him, Jazz moved her hand questioningly toward the mouse, only waiting for a reassuring nod before bringing the basic data and design back on screen and skimming through Henry's notes. "I'd say the only improvement I'd make to this would be to would be to add an ecto-converter system, if we could figure out how to make one that wouldn't add a twenty pound block to Kim's back."

"An ecto-converter?"

"It's a device that takes pure ectoplasm or ectoplasmic energy and converts it into pure energy. A system that would work wonders for the suit as an extra power source if she was allied or fighting a ghost. Actually, adding a Specter Deflector would be a good idea too. That would shield her from possession and add an extra, strong shock to her punches and kicks if she finds herself fighting a ghost. Which, considering that we intend for her to team up with my brother, is a guaranteed scenario."

Booting up the computer beside Henry's as she talked, Jazz brought up the design of what had to be the most brilliant idea her father ever had. Normally that wasn't saying much, his ideas were usually ridiculous without Maddy's input, but this one was truly genius. And he did it all on his own. Jazz was quite proud of it.

"Ok, that I can add." Grinning widely, Henry got work again immediately, effortlessly transferring the specks and altering them into a compatible form for the suit. "And…there! Done."

Looking over his creation, Henry felt quite proud of himself. There was nothing more he could add at this time that wouldn't take away from Kim's strengths or risk damage to the suit. He'd have Bulma and Wade look over the muscle support feature and see if they could upgrade that idea, but other than that, this was perfect.

"Mmm…almost." That remark almost left him in a spluttering mess as her turned the critic glaring at the screen beside him. What was that supposed to mean? He'd put everything he could safely put into it, it's defensive and offensive tech was amazing! An amateur could be deadly with this suit, what could possibly be wrong with it? "Let's add some metal bracers onto the forearms for some extra protection." Oh, a small, non-technological addition. That made sense. If all the tech failed, a little metal armor could save her life. "And then we change the look. I mean really, a plain, white jumpsuit with a few blue lines going through it? What is she, an astronaut? How dull and boring!"

Oh, yeah, he was quite happy to just move aside and let Jazz take care of that one. Women and fashion statements, he'd never understand it.

….

Training provided the perfect cover. It was absolutely required daily. No one would suspect a thing of her appearing with a bow. Archery was her specialty, her main focus, so it was no surprise that she'd take to the shooting range on the edge of the training grounds. Knocking her first arrow, she nodded to a guy near the edge of the range and waited as he got to work setting up the targets.

It always came with ease. Within seconds, tiny target boards, human shaped cutouts and finger thin poles sprung up randomly everywhere and every single one of the was systematically pierced, bound and destroyed. Her shots were perfectly fluid and consistent, her fingers forever bringing out and knocking the next arrow quickly and precisely, without the slightest of flaws as she tweaked her aim to her next target.

Projectiles joined the list next. Some simply targets, others targeting her. But still, she was completely unphased. She'd done it too many times. With perfect reflexes, she dived, rolled, jumped and flipped, easily dodging almost every sharp blade shot her way and deflecting the rest away with her bow, all the while continuing to fire arrows right on target. Everything she aimed for fell to the ground with an arrow or a hole through it.

Then, finally, the moment she was waiting for arrived. The final addition, high flying targets.

Most other projectiles had stopped by now, giving her room to aim with care. It was needed, high flyers soared right on the edge of her bow's range and moved fast. They could be tricky targets at the best of times, she'd never have a chance of hitting them at all if she was still dodging knives from all sides.

Swinging herself around a poll, shielding herself from the few remaining attackers, Artemis pulled herself onto one knee, knocked up an arrow and aimed, her sharp eyes following each target, determining their speed and size.

They were ridiculously small and fast. Ra's Al Ghul himself would find it challenging to hit them all. Artemis couldn't hope to hit more than a few. Fortunately, that was all she needed to keep her cover.

Confident in her predictions, Artemis let the string go and watched the arrow fly while immediately throwing her hand back to her quiver for another. The first one missed, as did the fourth, seventh, eighth and tenth. But still, it was more than enough for those watching. Enough to make the smirk and flare of victory Artemis was exhibiting inconspicuous. Few could have hit that many high flyers.

No one would ever consider the possibility that her miss shot arrows were anything other than ordinary arrows. At least, hopefully, not until it was too late.


End file.
